This is the easiest way to raise awareness about SNAP to your clients. Simply request flyers from UWKC (check back soon for the order form) and hand them out to people who visit your organization. If you distribute pre-packaged food boxes or bags, include the flyers when you’re packing them! Every day that you pass out flyers earns 30 points, so integrate this activity into each day you distribute food to rack up points!

Tip: Handing out flyers is more effective when paired with someone who can answer questions! Check out our SNAP training resources (coming soon), and have a volunteer or staff member with an “Ask me about SNAP” pin pass out flyers or set up a station.

Social media posts can reach lots of people, especially if people share your post on their own pages or timelines! Use our social media templates (coming soon!) for easy posting. You can share stories about how SNAP helps the people in your community, or promote activities you are planning as part of the challenge! Just be sure to include the hashtag #WashingtonSNAPChallenge2025. Each post is worth 5 points!

Tip: Get the community involved! Posting on social media is an easy way for your clients to help boost SNAP awareness and reach people who may not follow your pantry. Encourage community members to share how your pantry helped them learn about SNAP or how they’ve used their SNAP benefits.

Talk to many people at a time about SNAP, answer questions, dispel misconceptions, and help raise excitement about the many ways SNAP can help families. Order free tote bags, water bottles, and more swag from UWKC to give out to participants (order form coming soon). Each session is worth 100 points, and once you’ve done one, organizing more gets easier! Consider hosting one each week, at different times so clients with different schedules can attend.

Tip: Info sessions are a great place to screen clients for SNAP eligibility! Earn more points for including screening in your info session.

Many people may prefer to apply for SNAP and complete their interview in person rather than online or over the phone, especially older adults and those who are less comfortable with technology. Provide a list or map of nearby DSHS offices to your clients for 75 points. DSHS office locations can be found here. For this activity, please list out locations near you so that clients who are less comfortable with technology can still make use of this resource.

The internet can be a great place for finding information about SNAP, but it can be hard for people to know where to start or who to trust online. Become an accurate and trusted resource by adding a page about SNAP to your website with our easy template, and be sure to link to HungerFreeWA so clients can find even more information about SNAP, school meals, and other hunger relief. Adding a SNAP page to your website is worth 100 points.

If you don’t currently have a website, make one easily and for free with our guide (check back soon for the link). Make sure you link to HungerFreeWA, and earn 200 points for making information about food assistance in Washington more available online!

The SNAP application can be complicated, and many folks who want to fill it out online need some help. Assisting agencies can, as the name suggests, assist! If you yourself are not an Assisting Agency, provide a list of organizations on a poster or your website for 75 points. Find a list of agencies by county here: https://www.washingtonconnection.org/home/publicaccessdirectory.go. 

In addition to the main SNAP flyers, UWKC can provide flyers about other topics related to SNAP, such as eligibility for immigrants, how to use an EBT card to order groceries online, and additional resources that come with SNAP participation. Order these posters with a simple form (check back soon for link). These topics can help grow excitement about SNAP and encourage people to sign up, so passing out these flyers is worth an additional 20 points per day of distribution.

This cookbook offers dozens of recipes and tips for making delicious food on a typical SNAP budget. Offer a paper copy for visitors to peruse for meal ideas when they visit the pantry and link to where they can download a pdf copy for themselves or check the book out from a local library for 25 points. Check back soon for more details on this activity.

SNAP participation comes with many additional benefits such as Market Match, which can double benefit dollars when one shops for fruits and vegetables at a participating farmers market, and Museums for All, which offers discounted or free tickets to museums, zoos, gardens and more. But many SNAP users may not know about these benefits or how to use them, or they might face a language barrier or be nervous about trying it out for the first time. Host a field trip or outing to a market or museum and help people learn how to use these benefits for 200 points!

You don’t have to rent a bus or book a tour to earn these points (although we encourage you to do so if you have the means!). This activity can be as simple as providing directions to the location and meeting folks outside the entrance to help them know where to go and who to talk to. Promote it as a field trip for families, or as an excursion for all ages.

Tip: You can also contact the museum or market to ask if they’d be willing to offer a discount or other benefit to any of your clients who want to participate but haven’t yet received their SNAP EBT card. 

Tip: Get the community involved! Earn 5 bonus points for each person that comes to your event. All Museums for All locations offer at least 4 tickets at a free or reduced price per 1 EBT card, and some offer more or admit additional children for free!

Sharing information and resources with other nearby social service nonprofits is a great way to make your work go further. Find another local food pantry or other organization near you and reach out to them for 25 points.

Tip: If this other organization isn’t already signed up for the SNAP Recruitment Challenge, recruit them for bonus points for both of you!

Other organizations in your community such as community centers, churches, or clubs might be able to reach people who could benefit from SNAP but who don’t use the pantry. See if they will hand out flyers at their meetings or services, put up a poster, or include information about SNAP on their website or in a newsletter.

Tip: Get the community involved! Ask your clients if they’re part of any groups where information on SNAP could be shared.

For businesses, check back here soon to find templates to explain how more people being signed up for SNAP can help grow the local economy and benefit their bottom line. If you have relationships with any food stores, such as if your pantry gleans or rescues food from them, these would be great stores to start with! Ask if they’ll put up a poster on their front window or bulletin board.

Being able to accept SNAP EBT at their farmstand or farmers market booth can help farmers boost sales and make fresh local produce more available to SNAP users. This is doubly true if SNAP users can double their benefits when shopping with the farmer through SNAP Market Match. If your organization is in contact with any local farmers, such as if you partner with them through Farm-to-Food-Pantry grants or other purchasing relationships, provide them with our guide and contact list for registering to accept SNAP and for SNAP Market Match. Check back soon for a link to the guide.

This might be the single most effective activity of this challenge! The SNAP eligibility rules can be hard to understand, so helping people figure out if they’re eligible can be a huge help! To screen people for Basic Food eligibility, you will need at least one staff member or volunteer with a very good understanding of the SNAP eligibility rules; have them take our SNAP training course if you don’t already have a dedicated screener. Conduct SNAP screenings and earn 10 points per household screened.

Provide computers or answer questions and provide assistance for people applying for SNAP online on Washington Connection. Earn 10 points per household assisted.

Tip: Register as a Washington Connections Community Partner to affirm your commitment to provide this assistance long-term and receive training and updates about the online application process, as well as a huge point bonus for the challenge!

An accurate and complete base of information is essential for promoting SNAP and Basic Food, and this activity is required for many other activities in the challenge. Earn 100 points per staff member or volunteer who completes our SNAP training course, which will be posted and linked here before the Challenge begins.

Tip: The more staff members and volunteers trained, the better! Earn an extra 250 bonus points for training at least 50% of your staff and permanent volunteers, and another 250 points if you can train everyone!

Commit a staff member or long-term volunteer to be a dedicated SNAP screener. This person should be available to screen your clients at least one day each week, but that commitment earns your organization 500 points in the challenge in return!

Tip: If they are okay with it, consider celebrating this person and their commitment to ending hunger and promoting SNAP on social media, your website, or the Kudoboard! This will also help your clients understand where they can get help in determining their eligibility.

Washington Connection is the online portal for applying, recertifying, and submitting changes for Basic Food and other benefits. Community partners provide information about, computer access to, or assistance for Washington Connection applicants and clients, and receive updates and guidance about the platform from DSHS. Registering as a community partner affirms your organization’s commitment to continuing to promote Basic Food beyond this challenge. Register as a Host Agency for 500 points, or as an Assisting Agency for 1000 points.

Tip: Start the registration process early in the challenge! It may take a little while for your application to go through.

Sign up to meet with legislators in Olympia and advocate for issues that matter to food pantries and other food assistance organizations across Washington, such as free school meals, EFAP funding, and more. Earn 300 points for registering. More information on this activity will be posted when available.

Meeting with constituents and seeing the need in their community for themselves can have a big impact on lawmakers and convince them to extend funding or other help to social service organizations. Invite local legislators and officials to tour your food pantry or other parts of your organization and earn 150 points for each who schedules a visit.

Learn how to most effectively persuade lawmakers and other people in powerful positions to support your cause. Earn 100 points for attending an advocacy training.

Write a persuasive email or letter with a call to action and send it to your representatives for 75 points. 

Tip: Ask your clients to sign their name to the letter; the more people legislators see supporting your organization, the better! Make sure you have a final copy of the letter available for people to read if they wish before agreeing to add their name.

Opinion pieces can help inform newspaper readers about issues in their community, why they should care, and how they can help. They can also help draw journalists’ attention to your organization and sometimes lead to full articles. Write and submit an op-ed about a food security issue to a newspaper and earn 75 points, even if it isn’t accepted for publication. Submit to a local paper for a better chance of being published, or dream big and try to reach more people through a state or even national paper! Just make sure your editorial is aligned to your audience.