Beginning Thursday, Americans in five states who receive government assistance for grocery purchases will face restrictions on soda, candy, and other foods they can buy with those benefits.
Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Utah, and West Virginia are the first to implement waivers that prohibit the purchase of certain foods through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
This is part of a push by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke to encourage states to remove foods considered unhealthy from the $100 billion 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 again to treat the illnesses those programs help create,” Kennedy 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 initiative.
However, retail industry and health policy experts said state SNAP programs, already under pressure from steep costs, are unprepared for the complex changes, lacking complete lists of affected foods and facing technical point-of-sale challenges that vary by state and store. And research is inconclusive about whether restricting SNAP purchases improves diet quality and health.
The National Retail Federation, a trade association, predicted longer checkout lines and more customer complaints as SNAP recipients learn which foods are affected by the new waivers.
“It’s a disaster waiting to happen of people trying to buy food and being rejected,” said Kate Bauer, a nutrition science expert at the University of Michigan.
A report by the National Grocers Association and other industry trade groups estimated that implementing SNAP restrictions would cost $1.3 billion initially and $759 million each year going forward.
“Punishing SNAP recipients means we all get to pay more at the grocery store,” said Gina Plata-Nino, SNAP director for the anti-hunger advocacy group Food Research & Action Center.
The waivers deviate from decades of federal policy first enacted in 1964 and later authorized by the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, which stated that SNAP benefits can be used for “any food or food product intended for human consumption,” except alcohol and ready-to-eat hot foods. The law also prohibits SNAP from paying for tobacco.
In the past, lawmakers have proposed preventing SNAP from paying for expensive meats like steak or so-called junk foods, such as chips and ice cream.
But previous waiver requests were denied based on studies concluding that restrictions would be costly and complex to implement, and that they might not change recipients’ buying habits or reduce health problems like obesity.
Under the second Trump administration, however, states have been encouraged and even incentivized to seek waivers – and they have responded.
“This isn’t the usual top-down, one-size-fits-all public health agenda,” Indiana Gov. Mike Braun said when he announced his state’s request last spring. “We’re focused on root causes, transparent information, and real results.”
The five state waivers that take effect on Jan. 1 affect approximately 1.4 million people. Utah and West Virginia will ban the use of SNAP to purchase 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.
“The items list does not provide enough specific information to prepare a SNAP participant to go to the grocery store,” Plata-Nino wrote in a blog post. “Many additional items – including certain prepared foods – will also be disallowed, even though they are not clearly identified in the notice to households.”
Marc Craig, 47, of Des Moines, said he has been living in his car since October. He said the new waivers will make it more difficult to determine how to use the $298 in SNAP benefits he receives each month, while also increasing the stigma he feels at the cash register.
“They treat people that get food stamps like we’re not people,” Craig said.
SNAP waivers enacted now and in the coming months will run for two years, with the option to extend them for an additional three, according to the Agriculture Department. Each state is required to assess the impact of the changes.
Health experts worry that the waivers overlook larger factors affecting the health of SNAP recipients, said Anand Parekh, a medical doctor who is the chief health policy officer at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
“This doesn’t solve the two fundamental problems, which are that healthy food in this country is not affordable and unhealthy food is cheap and widespread,” he said.
——
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.