Nearly one in five District residents count on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to buy groceries.1 Due to changes in federal law, SNAP customers who meet the definition of Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (or ABAWD) may soon need to meet work requirements to keep their SNAP benefits. Work requirements can be met through paid work, participating in an education or training program, or volunteering. The Lab partnered with the Department of Human Services (DHS) to design the SNAP Volunteer Program, which matches SNAP customers to volunteer opportunities that help them build toward career goals and meet their work requirements.
Dairy products on a grocery store shelf. (Image credit: Kenny Eliason on Unsplash)
Why is this issue important in DC?
Roughly one in eight DC SNAP customers (21,000 people) will need to start doing additional work, school, or volunteering to keep their benefits. We designed the SNAP Volunteer Program to make it easy to participate in and administer. Research shows that SNAP is important for promoting food security and health, so protecting access to these benefits is critical.2
What did we do?
We spoke with frontline staff and partner organizations, experts from other states, and customers to help DHS design the SNAP Volunteer Program. This included creating communication materials and guidance documents based on over 50 user tests. We also helped DHS launch an interactive tool for residents to see if work requirements are likely to apply to them. Drawing from the work of Code for America, the tool asks customers just a few conversational questions.
What did we learn?
The federal work requirements create several challenges for residents. The first is awareness. DC has not implemented work requirements since the 1990s. That’s why we focused on clearly explaining the new work requirements and who needs to meet them.
The second challenge is finding ways to meet work requirements. That’s where our partners at the SNAP Employment and Training (E&T) program come in. In addition to helping SNAP customers find jobs and education, E&T launched the SNAP Volunteer Program in 2026.
The third challenge is demonstrating to DHS that you’re meeting work requirements. Together, we created an easy way for customers to prove they’ve completed their volunteer hours.
What comes next?
DHS will continue to use the materials and processes we developed together to help customers understand and meet work requirements.
What happened behind the scenes?
The federal policy requirements are complex. To make them easier to understand we wrote and user-tested resident-facing explanations. DHS staff were then trained on this language so they can speak clearly with customers.