Millions of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients are about to face new limitations on what they can use the federal assistance program to buy, including bans on soda, energy drinks and candy, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
Which states will implement the changes?
At least 18 states will implement changes to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the new year, according to the USDA. Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Utah and West Virginia will implement the changes in January.
The remaining 13 states will make changes later in the year.
“The Trump Administration is leading bold reform to strengthen integrity and restore nutritional value within the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” the USDA said in a statement about the upcoming changes.
The five state waivers take effect on January 1 and will affect about 1.4 million people. Utah and West Virginia will ban the use of SNAP to buy soda and soft drinks, while Nebraska will prohibit soda and energy drinks.
Indiana will target soft drinks and candy. In Iowa, which has the most restrictive rules to date, the SNAP limits affect taxable foods, including soda and candy, but also certain prepared foods, according to PBS.
“The items list does not provide enough specific information to prepare a SNAP participant to go to the grocery store,” Gina Plata-Nino, SNAP director for the anti-hunger advocacy group Food Research & Action Center.
“Many additional items, including certain prepared foods, will also be disallowed, even though they are not clearly identified in the notice to households,” she added.
Why are these changes taking place?
It is part of a push by Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to urge states to strip foods regarded as unhealthy from the $100 billion federal program, long known as food stamps, that serves 42 million Americans.
“We cannot continue a system that forces taxpayers to fund programs that make people sick and then pay a second time to treat the illnesses those very programs help create,” Kennedy had said in a statement in December.
The efforts are aimed at reducing chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes associated with sweetened drinks and other treats, a key goal of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again effort.
