Starting Thursday, Americans in five states who get government help paying for groceries will see new restrictions on soda, candy and other foods they can buy with those benefits.
Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Utah and West Virginia are the first of at least 18 states to enact waivers prohibiting the purchase of certain foods through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
It’s part of a push by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to urge states to strip foods regarded as unhealthy from the $100 billion federal 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 a second time to treat the illnesses those very programs help create,” Kennedy said in a statement in December.
Food deserts and people working multiple jobs, rough sleeping. It’s cruel. Allow them to buy hot prepared meals for a comparable cost or stop harassing them.
Can’t say I disagree with that. My biggest gripe is that it’s mainly poor people who suffer the vicious cycle of bad nutrition from junk food. I think it’s reasonable to say a healthy alternative should be availible before taking away the junk food.
I mean some large convenience stores will sell a 4oz boxed salad for $8-9 or 4 1oz bags of chips for $2. Corporate farms and Frito - Lays both get subsidies. Plus people with bad or no teeth can hold a chip in the mouth until it’s soft. Not so much an apple. Also instant cereal packets of oats or grits cost as much for 8 small packets as a whole 16 oz box – if you only had time, tools and space to cook it.
Recently on my way to work, a convenience store let me get a hot cup of water for my green tea bag for free. A cup of bad coffee was $2. I think most stores charge for the cup of water, though.