Sanders: SNAP shouldn’t buy junk food 

By STEVE BRAWNER

Should Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds be used only for nutritious foods? 

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders says yes. She plans to ask the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for a waiver allowing the state to prohibit SNAP benefits from being used for junk food and instead support the purchase of fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs, and protein.

Sanders revealed her intentions in a letter dated Dec 10 to President-elect Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and to Trump’s USDA nominee, Brooke Rollins. She also asked them to prohibit the sale of junk food through SNAP nationally. 

The SNAP program is often known by Americans as “food stamps” even though it has used a card for years. It provided benefits to 42.1 million recipients per month and cost $113 billion in fiscal year 2023. The Arkansas Department of Human Services told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that 223,552 people from 119,675 households were participating in the program as of Tuesday.

The letter argued that the SNAP program funds the purchase of a lot of unhealthy food. A report by the CATO Institute, a Libertarian think tank, said that a 2016 USDA study found that 23% of SNAP household food purchases consisted of sugary drinks, desserts, salty snacks, candy and sugar. 

Sanders said such poor food choices not only cost taxpayers money at the checkout line but later at the doctor’s office as well. She noted in her letter that chronic health conditions contribute to the state’s poor maternal health conditions. A third of the state has either diabetes or pre-diabetes, while 40% are obese. These problems are common in Arkansas generally but affect SNAP recipients in greater percentages. 

Finally, she argued that reforming the SNAP program would benefit Arkansas farmers who grow poultry, eggs, beef, strawberries, sweet potatoes and other healthy products. 

The same day Sanders released the letter, Opportunity Arkansas, an allied conservative group, released a survey it said showed a majority of Arkansans supported her idea. Sixty percent of voters said yes, including 72% of Republicans and 52% of Democrats. 

Surveyors asked 493 voters, “Do you support or oppose requiring individuals to use their food stamps to purchase only healthy food instead of junk food?” That’s not a completely unbiased question in that it paired the words “healthy” and “junk food.” However, even a middle-of-the-road question probably would have drawn majority support. 

Sanders is not the first Arkansas governor to make healthy living part of her platform. In fact, she’s not even the first Huckabee. Her father, Gov. Mike Huckabee, lost weight and wrote a book, “Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork.”

The feds have denied other government entities’ previous attempts to ban SNAP from buying junk food. Maybe the second-term Trump administration will be different. Kennedy advocated for a ban like Sanders proposed in a recent Wall Street Journal column. Sanders’ well-documented previous service as Trump’s press secretary won’t hurt. 

As with any new government program, questions would have to be answered. The SNAP program already has high administrative costs. Would this increase them? How would eligible foods be determined? The Women, Infants and Children program, which does require the purchase of healthy food, could be a model. What about recipients who live in “food deserts” where fresh food is less available? Would the same amount of SNAP benefits buy as much healthy food as it buys now?

The proposal targets SNAP beneficiaries, but most Americans are digging their own graves with a knife and fork, and the government is subsidizing and encouraging the unhealthiness of their lifestyles in various ways. For example, the health care system doesn’t really punish us if we eat poorly. Hospitals treat us, and taxpayers and fellow ratepayers collectively pay for much of the costs of our decisions.

In other words, a bigger conversation is needed about all the ways that modern American life makes it easy for us to make unhealthy choices – regardless of our income level.

But politics sometimes starts with smaller conversations, so we’ll start with this: Should Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds be used only for nutritious foods? 

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders says yes. Now, we’ll see if Arkansas gets the waiver.

Steve Brawner is a syndicated columnist published in 17 outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com.