Food Security in Puerto Rico: The Case for Transitioning NAP to SNAP

Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory home to 3.2 million American citizens. This is a higher population than 18 states, every other U.S. territory, and the District of Columbia. In 2024, 37.3 percent of people in Puerto Rico lived in poverty and in 2026, almost half of the island’s population (1.42 million people, or 44 percent) received federal food assistance benefits on a monthly basis. These numbers far exceed U.S. national averages for poverty (10.6 percent) and receipt of federal food assistance from SNAP (12.3 percent).

Puerto Ricans have endured decades of poverty and food insecurity, worsened by natural disasters like Hurricane Maria, and economic shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic. Puerto Rico also has a fraught social and political relationship with the United States, reflected in challenges with statehood and movements for independence, declining population, mismanaged debt, and more. Still, Congress has the power to alleviate some of these challenges, especially related to food access, by transitioning Puerto Rico’s food assistance program from NAP to SNAP.

What is NAP, and How is it Different from SNAP?

Since 1982, Puerto Rico’s primary food assistance program has been the Nutrition Assistance Program Block Grant (NAP). Congress replaced the island’s participation in the Food Stamp Program with a block grant that provides fixed funding to administer monthly nutrition benefits. Two other U.S. territories, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), also administer NAP, while every other state, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam administer SNAP. 

NAP is critical to addressing food insecurity in Puerto Rico, with Congress funding the block grant at $2.9 billion in FY2026. However, the programs falls short in its responsiveness to food insecurity, especially in times of emergency. With the fixed block grant, officials in Puerto Rico cannot expand participation in NAP to accommodate more people without Congressional approval. 

Unlike the NAP block grant, SNAP is an entitlement program, meaning anyone who meets the program requirements is eligible to receive monthly benefits. The NAP Block Grant in Puerto Rico has specific eligibility criteria that are more restrictive than SNAP eligibility and is a set amount of money that does not expand to meet increased need. To do so, Congress must approve a request for more funds. In states and other U.S. territories where SNAP is administered, enrollment can increase when more people need help putting food on the table, especially during economic downturns, with the federal government covering the cost.

Disaster-SNAP benefits (or D-SNAP) can also be activated to provide emergency food benefits to households affected by a crisis without congressional action. In Puerto Rico, there is no equivalent. After Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017, residents waited nearly six months before Congress approved $1.27 billion in emergency supplemental nutrition assistance funding. 

What Would it Take to Transition Puerto Rico to SNAP?

Transitioning from NAP to SNAP in Puerto Rico is possible, but it would require action from Congress, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Puerto Rico’s NAP agency (ASDEF). In 2022, USDA released a detailed feasibility study outlining what that transition would involve. 

Congress would need to amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, the law that currently authorizes NAP, to give Puerto Rico the authority to operate SNAP. If authorized, the transition is estimated by USDA to take roughly 10 years to complete. Driven primarily by the need to build new data systems which process applicants, determine eligibility, and issue benefits, Puerto Rico’s existing 30-year-old data systems would need to be replaced. The 2022 feasibility study estimates total implementation costs would range from $341 million to $426 million, with improving the data systems making up 84 percent of the cost.

Where Do Things Stand With NAP to SNAP in Puerto Rico? 

Support for this transition is broad in Puerto Rico. The island’s program administrators, along with local government, retailers, community organizations, and advocates across the mainland acknowledge that SNAP would bring more resources, greater flexibility, and stronger disaster protections to the island. A 2024 survey found that seven in 10 Americans support full inclusion of Puerto Rico in SNAP. Legislation to enact the transition, the Puerto Rico Nutrition Assistance Fairness Act (H.R.5168), has been introduced multiple times in Congress with bipartisan support but has not been enacted into law due to a lack of broad support.

Puerto Rico has taken early steps to facilitate the transition, like launching a pilot job-training program in 2022 to prepare and expose NAP recipients to the kind of work requirements SNAP would eventually require. In 2023, Puerto Rico’s Senate passed resolutions pledging to enact “all appropriate measures” to ensure a smooth rollout of SNAP. Puerto Rico’s NAP agency and USDA outlined a five-year, $414 million transition work plan and the island’s legislature appropriated $207 million, or half of Puerto Rico’s administration costs, to fund staff hiring, training, and the digitization of existing systems. Although this was never signed into law, it was a significant demonstration of commitment from the island’s leadership. 

Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens who receive substantially less food assistance than their fellow Americans. Congress should include Puerto Rico’s NAP to SNAP transition provisions in the next Farm Bill to help end hunger and increase food security on the island. 

Justin Seward was a Research Fellow at Bread for the World’s Policy and Research Institute (PRI)