Guiding Principles

FNS Guiding Principles

1. To improve the likelihood that persons eligible for SNAP will make healthy food choices within a limited budget and choose physically active lifestyles consistent with the current DGS and the USDA food guidance.
2. SNAP-Ed must include nutrition education and obesity prevention services consisting of a combination of educational approaches. The DGA describes the Social-Ecological Model (SEM) which illustrates how all sectors of society, including individuals and families, communities and organizations; small and large businesses; and policymakers combine to shape an individual’s food and physical activity choices. The SEM, shown on the next page, offers an opportunity to address providing SNAP nutrition education and obesity prevention services to the low income SNAP-Ed target audience through the three approaches described in the FNA.
   • Nutrition education and obesity prevention services are delivered through partners in multiple venues and involve activities at the individual, interpersonal, community, and societal levels. Acceptable policy interventions are activities that encourage healthier choices based on the current DGA. Intervention strategies may focus on increasing consumption of certain foods, beverages, or nutrients and limiting consumption of certain foods, beverages, or nutrients consistent with the DGA.

4. While the Program has the greatest potential impact on behaviors related to the nutrition and physical activity of the overall SNAP low-income households, when it targets low-income households with SNAP-Ed eligible women and children, SNAP-Ed is intended to serve the breadth of the SNAP eligible population. Based on a needs assessment, States have the flexibility to determine priority audience segments which would be best served by SNAP-Ed.
5. The Program must use evidence-based, behaviorally focused interventions and maximize its national impact by concentrating on a small set of key population outcomes supported by evidence-based multi-level interventions. Evidence-based interventions based on the best available information must be used. FNS encourages States to concentrate their SNAP-Ed efforts on the program’s key behavioral outcomes.
6. The Program can maximize its reach when coordination and collaboration takes place among a variety of stakeholders at the local, State, regional, and national levels through publicly or privately funded nutrition intervention, health promotion, or obesity prevention strategies. The likelihood of nutrition education and obesity prevention interventions successfully changing behaviors is increased when consistent and repeated messages are delivered through multiple channels.
7. The Program is enhanced when the specific roles and responsibilities of local, State, regional, and national SNAP agencies and SNAP-Ed providers are defined and put into practice.

WA State Guiding Principles

The WA SNAP-Ed Ed Plan will be…

1. Rooted in addressing health equity in all levels of programming, from representation in planning to delivery of interventions that are participant focused and client centered to evaluation methods that capture the impact on target populations.
2. Made up of comprehensive multi-level interventions to reach target populations at multiple levels of the social-ecological model and spectrum of prevention by leveraging the work of SNAP-Ed and non-SNAP-Ed partners through collaboration and communication.
3. Cohesive at the state level so focus are reinforced within and throughout regions.
4. Enhanced by the strengths of providers and historical SNAP-Ed successes to deliver robust programming throughout the state.
5. Evidence-based and data driven to reach populations where there is the need and opportunity for the biggest impact.
6. Dynamic and flexible enough to adjust interventions to best serve SNAP-Ed recipients based on formative assessments while maintaining fidelity of evidence based approaches.

Priorities

Left intentionally broad so providers can tailor interventions to local and regional needs, the priorities identify the core work that will be done as a state to achieve the identified goals. The majority of SNAP-Ed programming in WA should be aligned with the Priorities, but there may be work that falls outside their scope.

Work across the Social Ecological Model

Historically, SNAP-Ed focused exclusively on individual-factors through direct education. SNAP-Ed has encouraged policy, systems, and environmental changes to reinforce direct education.

Working across the social ecological model (SEM) includes strategies to change policy, systems, and environments, but also taking a comprehensive look at the whole person and what goes into their food and activity options. To learn more about the SEM and strategies at different levels, see page 7 of the SNAP-Ed Guidance and page 64 of the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Support Food Security and Healthy Food Access

Addressing the structures that prevent people from having real access to healthy foods is critical to seeing an impact of SNAP-Ed programming. Food security and access include both expanding the healthy options available and making them stand a chance against more pervasive unhealthy options by considering price, appeal, marketing, and promotion.

Active Living

Strategies to promote active living were included in the FY18–20 plan, and the Leadership Team encourages providers to continue robust strategies for supporting active living for FFY21–23. In particular, providers are encouraged to consider active living strategies within the context of the guiding principles and other priorities, particularly Working across the Social Ecological Model and Collaboration with Representation.

Collaboration with Representation

Partnerships have been central to SNAP-Ed’s work. For FFY21–23, the SNAP-Ed LT encourages providers to focus on meaningful collaboration with current and future partners. One of the guiding principles adopted for SNAP-Ed is that the plan should be rooted in addressing health equity in all levels of programming, from representation in planning to delivery of interventions that are participant focused and client centered to evaluation methods that capture the impact on target populations. Therefore, providers are encouraged to engage in collaborations that are representative of the recipients of programming. In doing so, providers should ask themselves what they can offer to their partners and how that serves their partners needs while recognizing the burden that asking for representation and partnership might present.

Statewide Goals and Objectives

Overarching SNAP-Ed Goal

“Overarching SNAP-Ed Goal “To improve the likelihood that persons eligible for SNAP will make healthy food choices within a limited budget and choose physically active lifestyles consistent with the current DGS and the USDA food guidance.”

Note: The percent change will be added later in FFY20 when more recent baseline data are available.