Nebraska has become the first state to be granted a federal waiver allowing it to prohibit the purchase of soda and energy drinks through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which aids low-income Americans in buying groceries. This decision, revealed on Monday by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, will affect roughly 152,000 Nebraska residents enrolled in the SNAP program.
“Nebraskans shouldn’t be using taxpayer dollars to buy soda and energy drinks,” expressed Governor Jim Pillen. “The SNAP initiative is designed to help families in need access nutritious foods, which is contrary to the unhealthy options that are being removed under this newly approved waiver.”
Apart from Nebraska, six other states including Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Indiana, Iowa, and West Virginia have also sought waivers either to restrict certain foods and drinks under SNAP or, in certain cases, to extend access to hot foods for participants, as per the USDA.
The elimination of sugary drinks and candies from SNAP has been a significant focus for both Rollins and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Rollins described Nebraska’s new approach as “a historic step to make America healthy again.”
Details regarding the specifics of Nebraska’s waiver, set to come into effect on January 1, have not been disclosed immediately. However, the decision has met criticism from anti-hunger advocates who suggest it complicates administration, increases costs, and could stigmatize those already facing food insecurity.
Gina Plata-Nino, a deputy director at the Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit advocacy group, voiced her concerns by stating, “The waiver disregards decades of evidence favoring incentive-based strategies over punitive restrictions as the most effective and respectful approach to improving nutrition and reducing hunger.”
SNAP is a significant national welfare program costing approximately $100 billion that serves about 42 million Americans. Managed by the U.S. Agriculture Department and implemented by states, it is authorized under the federal Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, which stipulates that SNAP benefits are for the purchase of “any food or food product intended for human consumption” with exclusion only for alcohol, tobacco, and hot foods prepared for immediate consumption.
In the past 20 years, legislation in several states has attempted to restrict SNAP from covering items like bottled water, soda, chips, ice cream, and even more luxurious meats such as steak. Nevertheless, until now, such requests were denied by the USDA, which argued that there were no definitive standards to categorize foods as healthy or unhealthy and warned that enforcing such restrictions would be cumbersome, costly, and might not necessarily alter beneficiaries’ purchasing behavior or mitigate health issues like obesity.