Last week, I had productive conversations with the Family Investment Administration about the need to expedite online SNAP access for Maryland families. Our state has been approved to provide this resource for over 2 years. 1/

Ironically, the quickest way to sign up for SNAP benefits is online. However you can't use these benefits online to reduce your time outside your home. This is a huge problem as more households become SNAP eligible and food insecurity grows. 2/

There are only 2 vendors in our country that process SNAP payments and the one for Maryland is @Conduent We need prioritization of online SNAP infrastructure to become an advocacy priority for @GovLarryHogan and @MDHumanServices 3/

On 4/8 @USDA announced that CA and AZ are joining the online SNAP pilot and they have a target date to provide this option to their SNAP customers later THIS MONTH!!! So in a mere weeks these states are granted access to the pilot and will be providing this benefit. 4/

Maryland received fed approval for YEARS to offer online SNAP to food insecure families but is still classified as a "non-operational pilot state." This is unacceptable. We are leaving food insecure households in a bind where they can ONLY use their benefit in-store. 5/