Arkansas is proceeding with a ban on the use of food assistance funds for candy and soda, set to begin Wednesday, defying a recent federal court ruling that struck down similar restrictions in other states. Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced the plan, stating an urgent need to address a "chronic disease epidemic" in the state, characterized by high rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
"On one floor of the state’s Department of Human Services, our state has been approving food stamp purchases for soft drinks and candy, while on another floor, our state’s Medicaid program is paying to treat the chronic diseases those products can help create," Sanders said.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, provides a monthly stipend for low-income families to purchase groceries and is utilized by approximately 42 million Americans.
The governor's office referenced Stanford University research suggesting that restricting sugary drink purchases with food stamps could reduce obesity and type-2 diabetes rates, though the broader research on the effectiveness of such restrictions on diet quality and health remains mixed.
This move comes as lawmakers have long debated the eligibility of certain foods for SNAP purchases. Currently, hot prepared foods are ineligible, but a bipartisan Senate bill aims to allow SNAP benefits to be used for rotisserie chicken.
Arkansas is among 23 states that have received waivers allowing for restrictions on certain sugary foods and drinks. These efforts are supported by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins as part of their "Make America Healthy Again" campaign.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington vacated the U.S. Department of Agriculture's approval of pilot programs in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, and West Virginia that allowed new SNAP restrictions. The judge ruled that these programs were not permitted under the statute the USDA cited and that the agency failed to follow its own regulations for implementing pilot projects. The ruling was not an assessment of the programs' merits.
Arkansas' program is being implemented under the same regulations as those that were vacated. David Super, a law professor at Georgetown University, noted that while federal district courts generally no longer issue nationwide injunctions, Arkansas' decision to proceed with the ban is "putting that to the extreme test."
Despite the judicial ruling, Governor Sanders stated, "Arkansas is moving full speed ahead, because we won’t wait around while our people get less and less healthy and we spend more and more taxpayer dollars trying to fix the problem."
Retailers are preparing for the change, which Steve Goode, executive director of the Arkansas Grocers and Retail Merchants Association, acknowledged will be a "big change" for businesses accustomed to existing SNAP benefit rules. However, Goode mentioned that some member stores in other states have already implemented similar restrictions with satisfactory results. Arkansas has provided assistance by creating a list of banned items for retailers, a step not taken in some other states. The state has also developed an app to help SNAP beneficiaries identify eligible and ineligible items.