NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 Florida limited what people can buy with SNAP benefits this week, cutting out soda, candy and highly-processed desserts in an effort to encourage healthier eating.<\/p>\n
The state says the restrictions are meant to improve public health. But fresh produce can be expensive, leaving some families struggling to afford nutritious options.<\/p>\n
“Fruits and vegetables tend to be much costlier,” said Evelyn Rossetti-Ryan, who runs a Marco Island food pantry.<\/p>\n
Rossetti-Ryan said people want to eat healthier but may not have the budget for it. SNAP, a federal food assistance program, helps low-income families buy groceries, but the new Florida rules now prohibit certain items.<\/p>\n
Mallory Bland, a mother of five in North Fort Myers, relies on SNAP to feed her family. “I have four boys so they’re definitely big eaters,” Bland said.<\/p>\n
Bland shops at Sunflower Discount Market in North Fort Myers, where owner Lisa Crawford offers a solution to help stretch those dollars. The store allows customers with SNAP to get up to $20 worth of fresh produce for free.<\/p>\n
“We have a pretty big customer base that uses SNAP cards,” Crawford said. “It’s a great way to really expand those SNAP dollars, because you are saving so much on your everyday groceries.”<\/p>\n
The program is made possible through Fresh Florida Access, a state initiative that helps people buy locally grown produce. For Bland, the program has been life-changing.<\/p>\n
“It’s extremely important that everyone’s well-fed and happy and there’s plenty to go around,” Bland said. “It’s really changed a lot of people’s lives, and I’m not the only one.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 Florida limited what people can buy with SNAP benefits this week, cutting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,3837,115,914],"class_list":{"0":"post-245270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news","11":"tag-collaborator_gen_stories","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-state"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}