The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Nutrition Assistance Program provides children and people with low incomes access to food, a healthful diet, and nutrition education. They offer a number of programs, such as:

  • Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also called food stamps, 
  • school meal programs, and
  • Women, Infants and Children (WIC), which provides assistance to pregnant and postpartum women, and their children.

SNAP benefits, or food stamps, are handled at the state level. Find out how to apply for food stamps in your state.

To Apply...

To apply for benefits, or for information about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, contact your local SNAP office. You can find local offices and each State's application on ournational map. Local offices are also listed in the State or local government pages of the telephone book. The office should be listed under "Food Stamps," "Social Services," "Human Services," "Public Assistance," or a similar title. You can also call your State's SNAP hotline number. Most are toll-free numbers.

Please don't call us at FNS headquarters to apply. We don't handle applications for the SNAP here. The State and county offices do that. And we don't have application forms. Each State has its own application form. If your State’s form is not on the web yet, you'll need to contact your local SNAP office to request one. 

On-line applications? The following States allow you to apply online. Here are their websites:

Arizona Maryland South Carolina
California (1) Massachusetts Tennessee
Colorado Michigan Texas
Delaware Montana Utah
Florida Nebraska Vermont
Georgia New Jersey Virginia
Illinois New York (3) Washington
Indiana (2) Ohio West Virginia
Iowa Oregon   Wisconsin
Kansas Pennsylvania    
Louisiana Rhode Island    

(1) Currently, residents of Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras,
     Colusa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Glenn, Humboldt, Imperial,
     Inyo, Kern, Kings, Lake, Lassen, Madera, Marin, Mariposa,
     Mendocino, Merced, Modoc, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Nevada,
     Plumas, San Joaquin, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Stanislaus,
     Sutter, Riverside, San Benito, San Bernardino, Tehama,
     Trinity, Tuolumne and Yuba counties may apply for benefits
     online. If you live in another California county, click on
     local SNAP office.

(2) Only residents that live in some Indiana counties may apply 
     for benefits online.  Qual-Check is an on-line screening tool to
     find out if you may be eligible, but is not an online 
     application.  If you click on your county and Qual-check 
     comes up, you can find out how and where to apply at 
     http://www.in.gov/fssa/dfr/2999.htm  

(3)  Only certain counties in New York have online applications 
      or provide online application assistance. You can get a listing 
      of these counties at: http://www.otda.state.ny.us/
      main/foodstamps/online.asp.

Other States are working on systems that will allow applicants to apply by computer, but none are ready yet. We’ll post them here as the States put them on line.

Last modified: 11/30/2011