Lawmakers push to ban junk food from SNAP benefits program

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – About 42 million people across the U.S. use Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP benefits, every month. It helps low-income families pay for everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to chips and soda.

There’s now a renewed push to ban junk food from the program. Lawmakers said the program needs to prioritize healthy food options. 

However, many healthy options are expensive compared to cheap, ultra-processed foods.

“My stamps not only help me, but they also help my daughter. So that’s what it’s all about with me,” Leonard Reed of Memphis said. “If I didn’t have them, I’d be in bad shape.”

Leaders, including Arkansas’ governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., want to ban using SNAP benefits to buy junk food like cakes, cookies, chips, and sodas.

The CDC said the tasty treats are often linked to chronic illnesses, but access to healthy food isn’t easy for people living in poverty.

“It is wonderful if everybody could afford to get fresh fruits and vegetables. But that also is very naive and shows the privilege of the person speaking,” University of Memphis social work professor Elena Delavega said. 

Delavega said there is a combination of factors, including the higher cost of healthy produce, limited access to grocery stores with healthy options, and a lack of transportation to get to the stores.

“One needs to have a functioning oven. One needs to be able to afford the electricity that it costs to turn on the oven. So sometimes it is cheaper for somebody to go, say, to McDonald’s and get a meal that it’s already made,” she said. 

Right now, federal law states SNAP benefits can be used for “any food or food product intended for human consumption.” Excluding any foods would require Congress to change the law.