Covering All Families

Assistance Programs

Below are brief descriptions of the assistance programs that are included in the Covering All Families web tool or are referenced in it. Click on the program abbreviation to go to that programs' web site (if available). Click here for information about Minnesota residency and United States citizenship rules for each program.

Programs Included in Covering All Families

CCAP	Minnesota's Child Care Assistance Programs are for low-income families with children under the age of 12 (ages 13 and 14 for children with special needs). It includes Basic Sliding Fee, At-Home Infant Care, MFIP, and Transition Year Child Care Programs (for families during the first year after their MFIP case closes). The Basic Sliding Fee Program can help working families who earn enough to keep off welfare but not enough to afford the high cost of child care. BSF includes the At-Home Infant Child Care program, which provides a subsidy to help a parent stay at home with their children under one year of age.
EITC	Earned Income Tax Credit is a federal program that allows working families with children and some adult workers between the ages of 25 and 65 without children to pay less Federal Income tax or receive money back as a refund.
WFC	Working Family Credit is the Minnesota/state supplement to the EITC. It is a tax credit program for working families with children and has the same eligibility requirements as the EITC.
GAMC	General Assistance Medical Care is free health care coverage for some adults without children, undocumented children under the age of 18 and individuals who are over 65, blind or disabled.
MA	Medical Assistance is free, individual health care coverage for parents, children, pregnant women, elderly, blind, and disabled persons. Adults qualify for MA only at much lower income levels than children do.
MCRE	MinnesotaCare is a low-cost health care coverage program for families and adults without children who do not have access to health insurance. Recipients pay a monthly premium based primarily on income and family size.
School Meal Program	The School Meal Program, commonly known as the Free and Reduced School Lunch program, is a national program providing free and reduced priced nutritious breakfasts and lunches to students to promote learning readiness as well as helping them to develop healthy eating skills through nutrition education activities.
LIHEAP	The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) helps families with paying heating or cooling bills, and making their home more weatherproof. LIHEAP is administered by the Minnesota Department of Commerce.
Food Support Program	The Food Support program (formerly known as Food Stamps) helps low-income families reduce hunger, and have access to food, healthful diets and nutrition education. The United States Department of Agriculture administers the program at the Federal level through its Food and Nutrition Service (FNS).

Programs Referenced in Covering All Families

FDPIR	Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations is a federal program providing commodity foods to low-income households, including the elderly living on Indian reservations, and to Native American families residing in designated areas near reservations.
MFIP	Minnesota Family Investment Program is Minnesota's welfare program that began in January 1998.

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Children's Defense Fund	Children, Youth & Family Consortium

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Last updated Thursday, November 18, 2004 10:18 AM