Food stamp recipients can’t buy groceries online

It’s hard to follow stay-at-home orders when you’re poor and unable to buy groceries online. That’s the situation for 1.8 million recipients of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) in Illinois. The U.S. Agricultural Department (USDA) began a six-state pilot program last year to allow SNAP recipients to buy groceries online. Two other states — Arizona and California — have submitted requests to run similar programs. Illinois is working with the USDA to try and do the same. “We are still in the process of understanding how long the implementation of the Online Shopping program will take,” said Patrick Laughlin, a spokesman for Illinois’ Human Services Department. “We are trying to expedite this process as much as possible in light of COVID-19 and social distancing recommendations.”