AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Arkansas and Indiana want to remove candy and soda from the list of items people can buy with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, or SNAP. As Maggie Ryan from member station Little Rock Public Radio reports, this follows Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy's directive to improve nutrition among Americans.
MAGGIE RYAN, BYLINE: To change what people can buy with SNAP benefits in Arkansas, the state needs federal approval. So they asked the administration to ban sodas, candy and drinks with less than 50% natural juice from the program. Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the restrictions will encourage low-income Arkansans to make healthier choices at the grocery store.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: Right now, you can use food stamps to buy a soft drink or a candy bar from a gas station, but you can't use them to buy an Arkansas-raised hot rotisserie chicken from a grocery store. That's the definition of crazy.
RYAN: Along with the restrictions on high-sugar products, she wants rotisserie chicken to be added to the list of things people can buy with SNAP. Right now, people on SNAP can't use their benefits to buy hot food. The idea is that things like chicken are cheaper when bought raw, and that people would cook at home, says Cathy May. She's with the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance.
CATHY MAY: But what that doesn't take into consideration is, you know, sometimes families are working more than one job and they have kids and, you know, not being able to grab, you know, a rotisserie chicken has been, you know, kind of more difficult, putting the extra burden on families to prepare nutritious meals for their family.
RYAN: May says SNAP is meant to be a temporary program. Most families use it when a parent loses a job or face other financial burdens. Arkansas' announcement was met with criticism from the beverage and candy industry. They called it misguided and pointed to a 2016 study that says people on SNAP buy the same amount of sugary products as everyone else. Some advocates worry figuring out each eligible product for SNAP could be cumbersome for some grocers. Gina Plata-Nino is with the Food Research and Action Center, which advocates for SNAP.
GINA PLATA-NINO: If more retailers say this is more expensive, more difficult to operate, retailers, especially those local grocers in our rural communities, may not have the bandwidth nor the capacity to be able to fully participate in the programs.
RYAN: That means some vendors may stop taking the EBT cards that come with the program. The public has 30 days to comment on the Arkansas proposal. If it gets approved by the federal government, the state could become the first to restrict candy and soda from SNAP benefits.
For NPR News, I'm Maggie Ryan in Little Rock. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.