CSNS Case Study Highlights

Written By: By Inshira Bediako, Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellow at APHSA & Morgan McKinney, Senior Process Innovation Associate at APHSA

Across the country, states and counties are exploring innovative ways to strengthen connections between the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other nutrition supports. A series of case studies, published by APHSA and Share Our Strength, highlights how four communities—Caroline County in Maryland, Illinois, North Carolina, and San Francisco—are leveraging community-driven process innovation to improve benefits access.

These case studies outline two-year pilot projects, detailing the challenges each site aims to address, their tailored implementation strategies, and long-term goals. They showcase opportunities to do business differently, demonstrating how public agencies can modernize service delivery and deepen their impact.

Overcoming Barriers to Accessing Nutrition and Economic Programs

Despite the various nutrition and economic programs aimed at eradicating hunger in the United States, families often struggle to access these resources due to their complexity, which also causes significant administrative burdens for government agencies.

To address these challenges, APHSA and Share Our Strength developed the Coordinating SNAP and Nutrition Supports (CSNS) program. CSNS provides states and counties with:

Flexible philanthropic dollars
Technical assistance
Peer learning opportunities

Each of these is offered with the aim of empowering participants to test innovative, community-centered solutions that streamline access to benefit programs and extend their reach within communities.

Launched in 2023, CSNS is piloting four unique projects in its second cohort—each designed to align SNAP with other federal, state, and local nutrition supports. While each site has taken a unique approach, all share a common goal: to strengthen connections, eliminate barriers, and improve access to public benefits while streamlining administration through process innovation.

WHAT IS PROCESS INNOVATION?
A core focus area of CSNS Cohort 2 is process innovation—rethinking and improving how human services are delivered. Process innovation adds value to public agency work by implementing person-centered approaches that minimize barriers, eliminate redundancies, and reduce administrative burden.

Process innovation is solution-focused, evidence-based, and centered on continuous learning. To be successful, it must be grounded in people’s lived experience, and balance compliance with risk and innovation to modernize human services. This can allow agencies to be proactive rather than reactive, streamline work across programs and levels of governance, and deepen community impact.

Highlights from CSNS Cohort 2 Case Studies

Each CSNS Cohort 2 site has adopted a tailored approach to better align SNAP with other nutrition programs. Here’s how they are making an impact.

Illinois: Strengthening Connections to Nutrition Benefits for Children Through Improved Technology and Data Sharing

The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) is collaborating with the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and the Greater Chicago Food Depository to modernize Illinois’ student data infrastructure. Aiming to reduce the burden on families who must navigate multiple applications, their goals are to:

Streamline eligibility determinations for the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer program (Summer EBT)
Improve data matching to support direct certification for the National School Lunch Program
Target outreach to students and families who are income eligible for SNAP

North Carolina: Meeting Families Where They Are

North Carolina has taken an ambitious three-pronged approach to:

Implement No Kid Hungry’s SNAP in Schools Model in select districts to connect families with benefits through the school system
Build referral pipelines in health care settings to connect Medicaid patients with SNAP application support
Improve the state’s online benefits platform to enable trusted community partners to assist with digital applications for SNAP and Medicaid

San Francisco, CA: Meeting Communities Where They Are—Transforming CalFresh and Nutrition Outreach

The San Francisco Human Services Agency (SFHSA) and San Francisco Marin Food Bank (SFMFB) are piloting a mobile office to serve neighborhoods that have high rates of food insecurity. This mobile office will provide onsite application assistance, interviews, and enrollment for programs like CalFresh (California’s SNAP program) and Medi-Cal (Medicaid).

For SNAP-eligible households, San Francisco hopes to provide EBT cards on the spot, piloting the “Cal-Fresh in a Day” model. SFHSA and SFMFB are co-designing the mobile office and customer experience alongside staff and community members through interactive prototyping and design sessions.

Caroline County, MD: Creating a Community Resource Navigator Network

Caroline County’s Department of Social Services and Board of Education are building a Community Resource Navigator Network to connect families to nutrition and economic supports. The county is hiring navigators who have lived experience accessing public benefits to provide targeted support to those navigating the social services system.

In collaboration with the Chesapeake Multicultural Resource Center, they are providing culturally and linguistically responsive support for the county’s large Spanish- and Haitian Creole-speaking communities. Their team is also modernizing a digital community resource directory to improve awareness of local resources, events, and opportunities.

Looking Ahead: Measuring Impact and Scaling Success

As each of these projects approach their close, the CSNS team will evaluate key metrics and consolidate lessons learned into future publications, tools, and resources. Each case study will have a complementary impact report after the project period closes highlighting outcomes, metrics, and lessons learned for each site.

If you are interested in learning more about these projects and what we’re learning through the thick of implementation, please reach out to Morgan McKinney, the Senior Process Innovation Associate for Community Collaboration at APHSA.