Sodas and tokens are displayed in a grocery store in the Astoria district in Queens, New York. This month, 12 states, mainly republican and in the south, decided to limit SNAP recipients from the purchase of food, such as soda and candies. (Photo Shalin Chatlani/ Stateline)
At least 12 states have received federal consent to limit the recipients of the additional nutrition or snap program, from using their benefits to buying some foods, such as soda and candies.
Countries receiving exemptions from the US Department of Agriculture are predominantly Republican. Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia received permission last week. Federal gave releases Arkansas, Idaho, Indiani, Iowa, Nebraska and Utah at the beginning of this year.
SNAP administered on average Almost 42 million people per month in the 2024 tax year, with about 12% of the US population received benefits.
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This trend is part of the American Secretary for Human Health and Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to “make America healthy”, inviting you to apply for release to change the rules of SNAP in order to limit the types of food recipients.
Kennedy said in a statement that Snap used taxpayers’ dollars to “drive American diabetes and epidemics of chronic disease.”
“These exemptions help restore real food at the program center and allow countries to conduct charges in public healthcare,” he said.
Critics of these dismissals say that politics can harm people in places such as food deserts in which well options are confined, and take the power of recipients to make their own nutritional choices.
Craig Gundersen, a professor at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Baylor, told Stateline that these changes can harm the honesty of the program.
“One of the main reasons why SNAP is such a successful program is that it gives recipients dignity and autonomy. It gives dignity to recipients, allowing them to shop in the same way as their neighbors, friends and family, and gives autonomy to recipients, telling families: You are the best to make decisions for your families about what you can buy.
Gundersen said he was worried that SNAP can tense restrictions, which he called one of the best fighting programs with a lack of food safety.
Stateline reporter Shalina Chatlani can be obtained at Satlani@stateline.org.
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