Eighteen states have now agreed to work with the Trump administration to prohibit the use of SNAP benefits (food stamps) to purchase junk food. After 12 states initially submitted requests to implement such a ban earlier this year, six new states joined the list last week.
In a statement, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said that Hawaii, Missouri, North Dakota, South Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee submitted waivers to “amend the statutory definition of ‘food for purchase’ under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) beginning in 2026.” These waivers remove “unhealthy” foods from SNAP eligibility. The purpose of the waivers is to tailor “excluded items based on state submissions” and will go into effect next year.
The 12 states that previously submitted waivers are Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., praised the 18 states for embracing the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement and for promoting a healthy lifestyle to Americans.
“Thank you to the 18 governors who are leading the charge on SNAP reform to restore the health of Americans—especially our kids. Their courageous leadership is exactly what we need to Make America Healthy Again,” Kennedy said. “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.”
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins shared a similar sentiment to the new announcement by promoting the MAHA movement as a force of positive change for the country.
“President Trump has made it clear: we are restoring SNAP to its true purpose – nutrition. Under the MAHA initiative, we are taking bold, historic steps to reverse the chronic disease epidemic that has taken root in this country for far too long,” Rollins said. “America’s governors are answering that call with courage and innovation, offering solutions that honor the generosity of the taxpayer while helping families live longer, healthier lives.”
In February, Rollins sent a letter to the nation’s governors promoting a new “Laboratories of Innovation” initiative that encouraged states to “propose bold ideas to address challenges that have long plagued our nation, particularly rural communities.” This included introducing “much-needed reforms to nutrition assistance programs to promote the dignity of work and healthy eating habits to ensure our citizens live longer, more abundant lives.”
The governors of several of these states heaped praise on the Trump administration for working to improve the nation’s health.
“I want to thank Secretary Rollins and the entire Trump administration for their work on our shared goal of modernizing SNAP to promote healthier eating and empower Virginians to lead healthier lives,” Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said. “We all recognize that better nutrition is a critical step to making Virginia the strongest she’s ever been.”
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee shared the same sentiment.
“The Trump administration’s leadership to create innovative, responsible solutions that strengthen families and improve health outcomes will have a lasting impact on Tennesseans for generations to come,” Lee said. “I’m grateful to President Trump, Secretary Rollins, and Secretary Kennedy for quickly approving our SNAP waiver, and to our retailers and food producers for helping ensure nutritious food choices reach every community across our state.”
Alan Jamison is the pen name of a political writer with extensive experience writing for several notable politicians and news outlets.
Too bad Oregon is such a woke mess that they don’t care about the health or education of the people of this state.the carts in Walmart are full of junk with fat pajama wearing kids following behind munching on cookies. Sad messed up state,40 put 50 in education, but we continue to give to illegals !!! Free everything!!!????.and seniors nothing.
Shame on all the states that do not ban junk food. SNAP is supposed to be about providing nutrition not just empty calories that lead to more obesity and diabetes, etc.
Now they just need the people that can work to get a job and buy their own groceries instead of sponging off the people that work hard for a living!
My daughter a teacher with a Masters Degree uses coupons and buys generic brands and is frugal with money. My wife and I see these Snap people buying soda, chips, cupcakes, and buying the highest quality crap. This program has to be totally overhauled for most people we see on Snap look healthy and fit capable of doing some sort of work.
Of course blue states will not want to do this. Keep the population sucking the government tit so you can better control them.
I’ve read comments about blue state not getting with the program. They would rather keep their population unhealthy than give up TDS. Washington state keeps pace with CA and OR.
Where are the Left Coast states where a lot of the health nuts reside? Where are New York and Illinois? Of course, they’re not there….They’re liberal leadership won’t allow them to sign on to something which makes good sense and healthy. Anyone want to none of these states with idiotic leadership will never sign on to to this?
I will say this again; it was in the late 1980’s that the law changed to allow junk food with food stamps. The uses of food stamps were complaining that their kids didn’t have what other kids had i.e. chips, soda, candy, etc. So, for the sake of ‘equity’ the soft, naive representatives gave in.
Then I became a single mother of 3 who couldn’t get food stamps bc I had a business savings account to pay for quarterly taxes, insurance and wages, and all marital debts. Mind you, I was living meagerly as I wasn’t getting child support. All of a sudden, I see my hard-earned tax dollars buying those foods for woman who could ‘afford’ long weaves and nails, while my kids were now without! And they were buying steaks, and I had to resort to hot dogs, fish sticks and lots of homemade soup!
Those moochers are ungrateful, even today. It’s a culture of ‘you owe me’. It will continue until our lawmakers get some hutzpah and make people become fishers not scavengers.
Identifying the “junk food” by name would have been educational. I have watched for years, SNAP users, purchasing so many snack products with soda, and paying for it with their card. These items are expensive, and hence the dilemma of running out of money before months end, glad this is getting fixed.
Next step:
Basic food items for nutrition. Fresh fruits and vegetables, pasta, rice, beans, peanut butter, milk, cheese, eggs and ground beef.
No steaks, roasts, crab legs, lobster tails etc.
Sadly the majority of the Blue States (and possibly some Red States (which is INEXCUSABLE! ALL RED STATES SHOULD BE LEAPING TO ENDORSE THIS, AND SHOULD HAVE ALREADY BEEN ON BOARD), will NEVER support this JUNK FOOD BAN because they suffer from SERIOUS TDS. Their personal HATRED for Trump and EVERYTHING he does or tries to do, is ONLY HURTING THE PEOPLE THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE SERVING BY PROTECTING THEIR SAFETY, HEALTH AND LIVELIHOOD.
The other 32 states are proving that they don’t care about the health of the poor.
I truly hope the ‘candy’ thing doesn’t include DARK Chocolate! I use 85% to quiet my ‘sleepy’ feet, and to go to sleep!
Question is WHY did the federal government reduce my disabled sister’s SNAP to $150 a month (cut from $233) when they can give illegals $1000 a month! MAGA was told the disabled weren’t going to be cut. Groceries are astronomically expensive…how can disable supposed to make $150 last a month?
When I shop at Walmart it is amazing to see how many shopping carts are loaded down with junk food and it is usually some overweight or obese person pushing the cart.
The SNAP Program has set the system to reject when cigarettes or booze is purchased. Shouldn’t be hard to put in the system to reject certain harmful foods. Get off the john, and Flip the Switch and just do it. Set the Machine so it doesn’t pay for JUNK FOODS!!
I’ve been trying to get snap because I can’t work anymore but all I get is a runaround. I’m sure it’s not because I’m a white senior and every person that works at the government that controls the purse strings is a black female. It’s the same at the SSA.
So what all is being classified as “junk food”?
If this program is about feeding hungry poor kids, then I am a monkey’s uncle. In the mid seventies my neighbor helped to serve lunch in school to “deserving” kids, mostly black, plates of food, cartons of mild and bananas or oranges were thrown in the garbage cans. God forbid that she should take a banana or a carton of milk home to her kids.This abomination is still going on 50 years later. Obviously money is not a worry when it comes out of someone else’s pocket.
Well past time !!
Open closed grocery stores as snap outlets, I grew up box commodity cheese, meats, peanut butter corn flakes, oatmeal, rice, flour, corn meal, etc, control what can be used with snap card, no soda, junk foods, if not healthy no buy with snap limit amount can purchase if snap for 2 people limit peanut butter say 4 jars a month, etc people used to load up on brown box velveta cheese and spam sell excess to buy cirgarettes alcohol etc back in 60’s.
Victory Hooray Yes
Would be nice to know which foods were excluded
And he can do pullups easily at his age! I’ll bet you can’t do the same, vegan!
This is the most irresponsible and out-of-touch legislation possible to impose upon the poorest people in our country. Sadly, these folks on SNAP benefits can often only afford ”junk” foods so banning a whole swath of sustenance doesn’t help these people to eat healthier it just forces them to select from more costly items that will provide them with less food to fill their stomachs.
Normally, this would be typical of left-wing BIG government, telling people what they can and cannot eat. This is not what I expect from a Republican/conservative administration. President Trump should reconsider this ill-conceived decision.
This smacks of the top 1% of the rich having no concept at all of what it is like to live as the 20% of the poorest masses in America are forced to do. Remember that, ”One man’s ‘junk’ food is another man’s gift of life”. Deal swiftly and harshly with the people who are cheating the SNAP system, but don’t take away the gift of life from the poorest Americans who are doing all they can just to survive another day.