State Safety-Net Navigator
WIC, SNAP, TANF — what's available, who qualifies, how to apply
WIC, SNAP, and TANF are the three federal programs that form what most Black families experience as the safety net. Black households enroll in SNAP at roughly three times the rate of white households, and Black women and infants enroll in WIC at roughly twice the rate of white participants. TANF reaches a far smaller share than its 1996 predecessor (AFDC) did — about 21 of every 100 poor families with children today, down from 68 of every 100 in 1996.
Each of these programs has a federal floor and 51 different state implementations. Eligibility rules, max benefits, application URLs, and processing times vary state by state. Pick a program, then pick a state.
The three programs
WIC
Women, Infants, and Children
Pregnant + postpartum women, infants, children under 5 at or below 185% FPL. Monthly food package + Cash-Value Benefit for fruits and vegetables.
WIC by stateSNAP
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
Food stamps for low-income households. FY 2025 max benefit for a family of three is $766 in the contiguous 48 + DC.
SNAP by stateTANF
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Cash assistance for low-income families with children. State-by-state benefit levels range from $204 (Mississippi) to $1,235 (New Hampshire) per family of three.
TANF by statePick a state
Methodology & data sources
WIC and SNAP data come from USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (fns.usda.gov) state plans, eligibility income guidelines, and FY 2025 cost-of-living adjustment tables. TANF data come from HHS's Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance (acf.hhs.gov/ofa) state-by-state policy tables and from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (cbpp.org) TANF state policy database.
State Black-eligible participation estimates draw on USDA's WIC Eligibility and Coverage Rates 2021 release (October 2024), USDA's SNAP Reaching Those in Need state series, and KFF state population denominators by race. Where a state participation rate among Black eligibles isn't directly estimable from public data, the field is left blank rather than interpolated.
Refresh cadence: federal cost-of-living adjustments annually (October for SNAP and WIC; FY for TANF), state agency contact info quarterly, advocacy / legislation anchors as events warrant.
Data refreshed: