Three states move to pull soda, candy off food stamps program

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday requested that the Department of Agriculture remove soft drinks and candy from the state’s food stamp program in an attempt to improve residents’ health. She also asked the government to add rotisserie chickens to subsidized foods under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, in Arkansas.

It’s crazy how the government food stamps will cover candy bars at a gas station over nutritious Arkansas-grown food, Sanders said at a Tuesday afternoon press conference. A third of Arkansans suffer from diabetes or prediabetes, and it’s no wonder when around $27 billion of the federal SNAP budget is spent on soft drinks, candy, and other junk foods, she added. The government isn't dictating what people spend their money on, it's simply ensuring that tax dollars are spent effectively on healthy foods, Sanders noted.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins spoke alongside Sanders and praised the initiative, noting that about 40% of adolescents in school suffer from at least one chronic health condition. The USDA is committed to feeding the hungry with nutritious U.S.-grown food over highly processed products that contribute to the health crisis, she said. Arkansas is leading the way as the first state to request a change of this type, Rollins said. The agriculture secretary added that other states were making similar changes to their SNAP programs through different avenues.

Indiana: Gov. Mike Braun signed nine executive orders on Tuesday, enacting similar changes to Indiana’s SNAP programs. One order included filing a USDA waiver to remove candy and soft drinks from food stamps. His orders also included policies to cut down on waste and fraud within the program and increase access to direct-to-consumer foods from Indiana farms. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised Braun’s orders at the Tuesday signing and encouraged every other U.S. governor to follow his lead.

Idaho: Gov. Brad Little signed a bill on Tuesday from the state legislature to ban candy and soda from food assistance programs, citing the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again campaign. Little vowed to secure the USDA waiver necessary for the law’s full enactment as quickly as possible.

Dig deeper: Read Addie Offereins’ report on the government expanding the welfare work requirements in 2023.