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NAP gets closer to EBT system
The CNMI Nutritional Assistance Program moves a step closer to implementing a benefit card system for its food stamp beneficiaries. If everything falls into place, the end of the use of paper coupons could happen by the first month of the new year.
According to Department of Community and Cultural Affairs Secretary Robert Hunter, the NAP recently went online, following development and testing, with its eligibility system last June.
He said the system took two years in development to complete and will electronically address a wide range of NAP-related functions, from the application process to the production of reports. Hunter said this new online system is a prerequisite to implementing an Electronic Benefits Transfer, or EBT method, of distributing benefits.
He said the EBT is similar to using a bank’s debit card or a credit card, and that NAP is now in the process of working with Food and Nutrition Services to develop the request for proposals to seek a vendor to handle the EBT function.
“Depending on the response to the RFP, we are targeting the first month of the new year to see the transition to the EBT. …This will end the use of paper coupons,” Hunter said.
This system will also make distribution of benefits easier to manage, make it easier for clients to receive their benefits, and assist NAP in monitoring fraud—cases where food stamp recipients wrongfully use coupons to buy incorrect items as the paper coupons are separated by regular foods and locally-made crops.
“This has been discussed for the better part of 20 years, and we are excited to see this eligibility system and EBT come to fruition,” Hunter said.
Hunter met with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Services last July to discuss proposals to adjust the benefits further and to enhance components of the NAP’s Employment and Training program and the Nutrition Education initiative.
