Food Justice Spotlight: Second Harvest Central Florida
A food bank in Florida is the embodiment of dignified and accessible SNAP enrollment. They have helped reduce the astounding $150 million in unclaimed SNAP benefits in Florida by successfully enrolling thousands of eligible families for SNAP with a nearly perfect approval rating. We spoke with Nitza Colon, the program manager of Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida (SHFBCF), to learn how they are transforming SNAP enrollment in their state.
Florida converted to an entirely online SNAP enrollment process and eliminated in-office applications around 2008, but in their efforts to adapt SNAP enrollment to today’s tech they shut the door on many people who needed to access benefits. Those who didn’t have a reliable source of internet or a computer, or knew how to operate a computer, were left behind, and the folks at SHFBCF acted quickly to bridge that gap.
“[We] developed a mobile online model, so we were meeting people where they were to help them apply” Nitza shared of their solution “the concept came from San Antonio Food Bank.” The success of their solution quickly took off, and soon they faced another obstacle. “As a consequence of the recession, the Department of Children and Families was bombarded by applications, they didn’t have enough staff to do the phone interview required by the program.” At the time, only 50% of cases SHFBCF submitted were approved because of the sheer number of applications they were getting.
That’s when SHFBCF developed its next winning solution: they received a waiver from the USDA to conduct the required interviews on behalf of the state in several Florida counties, increasing their enrollment rates tremendously. What started in only two Florida counties has expanded to seven different organizations across the state and resulted in the highest approval ratings SHFBCF has seen, at 90%.
“It’s all about having a good relationship with the Department of Children & Families and the state as well as a great network of collaborating agencies” Nitza went on to say about how SHFBCF achieved their success.
