In 2019, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) launched a pilot project in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the federal agency that administers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, more popularly known as food stamps. Through the government's "SNAP Online Purchasing Pilot," residents of 10 U.S. states would be permitted to use food stamps to pay for groceries purchased from Amazon online. More precisely, participants will use SNAP electronic benefits transfer payments (SNAP EBT), which are loaded onto debit cards, to make their purchases -- which is a big plus since you can't make purchases with physical cash, or certificates, online. Image source: Getty Images. Now, this program is being fast-tracked to become a "nearly national program" covering 36 states and the District of Columbia: Alabama Arizona California Connecticut Colorado District of Columbia Florida Georgia Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kentucky Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Missouri Nebraska Nevada New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island Tennessee Texas Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Through this expanded program, some 90% of all households eligible for SNAP benefits will be able to use those benefits to shop for groceries on Amazon.com "and other participating retailers." Within Amazon's platform, participants can use food stamps to shop on Amazon Grocery, Amazon Pantry, and Amazon Fresh as well. To ensure that items will ship free, Amazon is even waiving the requirement of a Prime membership, which ordinarily costs $119 per year, for free Amazon Fresh shipping for SNAP participants. 10 stocks we like better than AmazonWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Amazon wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of June 2, 2020 John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon and recommends the following options: short January 2022 $1940 calls on Amazon and long January 2022 $1920 calls on Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source