SNAP awards $810K tech grant to DHS

PROVIDENCE – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, which oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (or Food Stamps), has awarded the R.I. Department of Human Services with $810,055.

The SNAP Process and Technology Improvement grant will spread over a three-year period.

According to a release, the purpose of the grant is to support projects that “simplify application and eligibility determination for SNAP benefits.”

The Department of Human Services intents to plan and implement a document imaging system to support the application process for SNAP benefits. The plan is for the system to scan documents electronically and then index and store them as digital images, the images can be routes, archived and retrieved whenever necessary.

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“A document imaging system will enhance document management, save clients from having to resubmit documents, improve security, reduce data entry, and simplify the flow of documents throughout the eligibility determination process,” said a release.

“We are pleased to be chosen by the federal government to be awarded a grant, and we are enthusiastic about the opportunities this will open for us to improve customer service and ease the burden on our workers,” Sandra M. Powell, director of the Department of Human Services, said in a statement.

“We will join these new resources with efforts that are already underway through a grant from the Ford Foundation to streamline the delivery of human services, and with the new eligibility system being developed through the Affordable Care Act that will support all our major benefit programs,” added Powell.

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