WASHINGTON, D.C. — On April 20, changes will be happening to SNAP benefits in Florida.
Soda, energy drinks, candy, and ‘ultra-processed prepared desserts’ will soon be excluded from SNAP purchases according to Healthy SNAP Florida.
What You Need To Know
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved a waiver for Florida to exclude items like candy from SNAP benefits.
The change takes place on April 20
The USDA has approved the SNAP food restriction waivers for eighteen states so far.
The Trump administration began approving SNAP food restriction waiver requests for states in May, with Florida’s approved in August. USDA says the waivers are part of the “Make America Healthy Again agenda” in an effort to promote healthy eating and reduce chronic conditions in children.
“The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program administered by the USDA has been in existence for about sixty years, and what is eligible and ineligible has always been at a federal level and really has not changed much over the last sixty years. So, the state waivers that we’re seeing come through… the eighteen states, this is completely new,” said Angela Fernandez, Senior Vice President of Market Development at GS1 US, an organization that sets barcode standards.
Healthy SNAP Florida says on its website that “Florida is making changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to better align the program with its intended purpose: providing low-income households with access to a more nutritious diet to alleviate hunger and combat malnutrition.”
Fernandez says GS1 US is working with stores to avoid confusion and delays at checkout.
“We’re helping the retailers build the infrastructure so that they can build the system once and then be able to apply it to those specific state requirements to enable the checkout experience to be more seamless,” said Fernandez.
For consumers, Fernandez urges SNAP recipients to check their state websites, like healthysnap.myflfamilies.com for specific details ahead of implementation.