Starting in April, millions of Floridians who receive SNAP assistance will no longer be permitted to use those benefits to buy soda, energy drinks, candy, or prepared desserts as part of an initiative to encourage healthy eating.
Florida is one of 22 states, mostly Republican-led, that have requested waivers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to make changes to their food assistance programs. Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Utah and West Virginia started their changes in January. Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Wyoming followed in February.
Florida’s change will come in April, the USDA said. It’s one of the most restrictive in the country. Most of the other states’ waivers only ban soft drinks and candy.
Why are Florida’s SNAP standards being changed?
The USDA said in a statement that the move “is empowering states with greater flexibility to manage their programs” by restricting “non-nutritious items like soda and candy, adding “These waivers are a key step in ensuring that taxpayer dollars provide nutritious options that improve health outcomes within SNAP.”
Critics said the restrictions will increase the social stigma for SNAP recipients, cause confusion at checkout counters, raise grocery prices for everyone, and make life more miserable for people who are unable to afford treats without SNAP and have few other options. Unhoused Americans with nowhere to store unprepared foods will also be affected, as will Floridians in food deserts without easy access to fresh food.
The changes to the food assistance programs come months after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the chief proponent of the Make America Healthy Again movement, suggested he would work with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to limit access to certain foods under SNAP.
“Every American who wants to eat a donut ought to be able to eat it or drink a Coke,” Kennedy said in early 2025. “But the federal taxpayer should not be paying to poison our children. And we’re going to end that.”
Here’s what to know.
Millions of SNAP recipients in Florida will face new limitations in 2026 on what they can use the federal assistance to buy, including bans on soda, energy drinks and candy, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Which foods are banned for Florida SNAP recipients?
Changes to what people can buy using SNAP benefits will vary from state to state. According to Healthy SNAP Florida and the USDA approval, Florida’s SNAP will stop covering:
Soda: Any beverage made with carbonated water that is flavored or sweetened with added sugar or artificial sweeteners such as corn sweetener, corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, lactose, malt syrup, maltose, molasses, raw sugar, and sucrose
“Soda” does not include unflavored soda water or other drinks greater than 50% vegetable or fruit by volume, or that contain less than 5 grams of added sugar
Energy drinks: A beverage containing at least 65 milligrams of caffeine per 9 fluid ounces that is advertised as being specifically designed to provide metabolic stimulation or an increase to the consumer’s mental physical energy
“Energy drinks” do not include coffee or tea or any substantially coffee or tea-based beverage
Candy: Any product that involves the preparation of sugar or artificial sweeteners in combination with chocolate, fruits, nuts, caramels, gummies, and hard candies or other ingredients or flavorings in the form of bars, drops, or pieces
Ultra-processed prepared desserts: A processed, shelf-stable, ready-to-eat, pre-packaged sweet food intended for immediate consumption without any further preparation
When will Florida block sweets, soda, and energy drinks from SNAP?
The change begins April 20, 2026, according to the USDA.
Approval was for a two-year term ending December 31, 2027, with the option for the state to request three more extensions for a total period not to exceed five years. During that time, the state must track and report SNAP transactions and spending habits, and survey recipients to see if more Floridians are making “nutrient dense purchases” such as fresh fruits and vegetables.
What is SNAP, the former food stamp program?
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a federal program that provides assistance to low-income seniors, people with disabilities living on fixed incomes, and other individuals and families with low incomes to help them buy nutritious food such as breads, cereals, fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, poultry, and dairy. Recipents can also buy plants and seeds to grow food for their households to eat.
SNAP does not cover nonfood items such as pet foods, soaps, paper products, household supplies, grooming items, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, vitamins, and medicines, and may not be used to buy food to eat in the store, or hot foods.
It grew out of the nearly century-old national food stamp program started in 1939 at the end of the Great Depression. That program ended in 1943, but President John F. Kennedy initiated a new food stamp pilot program in 1961, according to the USDA. President Lyndon B. Johnson made the program permanent with the Food Stamp Act of 1964.
The program was renamed to SNAP as a result of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, a bill that passed over the veto of President George W. Bush.
SNAP is part of the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)Â program.
How much money do SNAP recipients get?
In fiscal year 2025, the average monthly benefit per person in the SNAP program was $190.59, per USDA (about $6 a day). For households, the average monthly benefit was $356.41 in total.
However, the exact amount of money each SNAP recipient gets per month depends on their income and household size, so it varies per person.
SNAP benefits cut, more restrictions added
The changes come as the SNAP program was already facing new reductions and restrictions. President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” passed in July cut an estimated $186 billion from SNAP funding through 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The bill also created a $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program that scores states on whether they submit SNAP restriction waivers, while making SNAP requirements more difficult for recipients to qualify.
Able-bodied individuals without dependents are required to work at least 80 hours per month if they are ages 18 to 65 to receive benefits. Previously, the top age was 55.
Veterans, people who recently aged out of foster care, and unhoused people are no longer exempt from work requirements.
Benefits are restricted to only certain lawful permanent residents and U.S. citizens. Others lawfully present in the United States are eliminated,  including those who have qualified for conditional entry under the asylum and refugee laws or based on urgent humanitarian reasons, such as survivors of domestic violence or human trafficking.
The federal government has paid for benefits, with each state handling the actual management. Under the new bill, states must assume up to 15% of benefit costs, depending on the payment error rate, and are saddled with increased administrative costs from 50% to 75%.
How many people are on SNAP benefits?
More than 42 million people across more than 22 million households relied on SNAP benefits every month during fiscal year 2025, according to the USDA. Children accounted for about 39% of the people who received the benefits, according to the USDA’s report on fiscal year 2023, its latest annual data.
About 2.98 million Floridians received SNAP during fiscal year 2024, about 12.7% of the state’s population. The national average is 12.3%.
In 2023, 55% of SNAP households with children included someone employed (28% of the total), and 61% also received some other form of assistance, such as Social Security.
C. A. Bridges is a journalist for the USA TODAY Network-Florida’s service journalism Connect team. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday day by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: SNAP bans soda, candy, energy drinks in Florida. What that means