Assembly Bill 474 would create a Surplus Food Assistance Account in the state general fund and authorize a $5 million request to deploy a private-sector AI-driven couponing application intended to help grocers better target perishable inventory and offer discounts to SNAP recipients, presenters told the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services on May 20, 2025.

Jason Frierson, with Cornerstone Government Affairs representing R4 Technologies, said the program deploys AI to help grocers adjust perishable ordering and to integrate couponing so SNAP participants can buy discounted items at their regular store. "The ask is $5,000,000," Frierson told the committee when asked about funding, and he described the funds as covering app development, deployment, cloud hosting, hotline support and ongoing data reporting.

Former Delaware governor Bethany Hall-Long, who participated virtually, described Delaware's experience with a similar public–private program and said the effort aimed to deliver healthier perishable items to vulnerable populations while reducing landfill waste. "For us, it was a public private partnership to begin to look at food waste, food security, and also our landfill and climate. It was 3 wins," Hall-Long said. She and Frierson said early rollouts elsewhere have shown increases in benefits value for participants; Frierson said preliminary launch data from other states indicated "upwards of a 30% increase in the value of the benefits they get from SNAP" though he also said the program was still gathering data from pilots.

Supporters included the Retail Association of Nevada and a University of Nevada, Reno student who described high campus food insecurity. Opponents and concerned stakeholders included Wendy Mattson of Healthy Communities Coalition (Lyon and Story Counties), who said local food pantries rely on donated perishable proteins, dairy, fruits and bread and worried that shifting perishable inventory toward discounted sales could reduce donations to pantries that serve seniors, homebound residents and food-desert communities.

During committee Q&A members asked how the app works, who would maintain proprietary rights and how discounts are implemented. Presenters said the program integrates with grocers' couponing systems so grocers can adjust orders based on local ZIP-code purchasing patterns and then offer discounts to SNAP users; Frierson and Hall-Long emphasized that the program targets the front end (ordering and inventory decisions), not after-the-fact donations when food is near expiration.

One pantry representative said many of her clients are seniors who receive limited SNAP benefits (she cited $23 per month for some seniors) and that donated perishable food is currently provided at no cost — she warned introducing a discounted-but-not-free marketplace could harm some low-income households who rely on free donations. Frierson and Hall-Long responded that the program is intended to expand access to fresh food at reduced prices for SNAP participants and that federal waivers (through the Food and Nutrition Service / USDA) enable discounted offerings as part of a pilot.

Why it matters: proponents argue the program can reduce food waste, increase the value of SNAP benefits for participants, and improve access to fresh perishable foods; critics fear the changes could reduce free donations to food pantries and create barriers for seniors and homebound clients who rely on free food distribution.

Next steps: the sponsor requested funding and asked the committee to consider the program; no committee vote on AB 474 is recorded in the transcript. The bill includes an administrative structure using the Division of Welfare and Supportive Services to manage an account in the state general fund and to administer the program if funded.