Kentucky wants to cut junk food from food stamps

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A proposed bill aims to exclude things like  soft drinks, cakes, cookies, candy from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP benefits.

Off the beaten path, in Shelby County, you find Bagdad, Kentucky where the B&N Food Market buzzes with activity.

Store owner Buckshot Warren said, “Really, I think B & N, the store here, is crucial to Bagdad, because that’s what everybody mostly relates Bagdad to.”

The market has been family-owned for generations. The board above the counter said voted best cheeseburger and best small business in Shelby County. They’re the home of the “Newt Burger.”

“My granddad, he started cooking cheeseburgers in the early 90s. So they called him Newt so the cheeseburger, we call it the Newt Burger. We still grind the hamburger like my granddad did. I still use the same grinder. We hand pat ‘em and them cook ‘em. [The] Freshest burger in the State of Kentucky,” Buckshot said.

He said the market is absolutely important to the rural area.

 “I think people would starve if we wasn’t here because everybody comes here to eat,” Warren explained.

State Rep. Matt Lockett, R-Nicholasville, filed House Bill 279. It would exclude “junk foods” from the SNAP benefits program. Things like soft drinks, cakes, pies, candy, potato chips and more.

 “If you can’t buy stuff like this, we still can cut you a sandwich because that’s considered cold. Us out here in Bagdad, we’ll still feed you to the best of our abilities,”  Warren said.

UofL Health dietician, Jennifer Florence, can’t comment on specific legislation, but discussed foods.

Florence said, “The foods that you mentioned that would be excluded if this bill passes actually are foods of low nutritional value. So, they’re not going to provide necessarily the nutrients that we need to be healthy. But also, those foods can contribute to health issues later on down the road. Things like heart disease, diabetes.”

Back at the Market, Warren’s gonna keep serving up food to hungry people.

 “Well, my hopes for the future is they keep lining out the door like they do every day here and I hope we keep selling out of food that we make because we make it all with love,” Warren explained.

According to a news release from the Speaker of House, 528,000 individuals across the Commonwealth receive SNAP benefits.