On a grocery run in early April, Sandra Allen added a Welch\u2019s juice product to her grocery basket at Target in Pflugerville. She had often used her SNAP benefits to buy juice for her 9-year-old daughter in the past. But this time, she couldn’t make the purchase: Texas implemented a new law that prohibits Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits from being used to buy candy or sweetened beverages.<\/p>\n
Allen knew this change was coming. She just didn\u2019t expect it to apply to apple juice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the embarrassment of taking it to the counter and them saying, \u2018Well, you can\u2019t get this,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIt’s embarrassing enough to have to pull out a SNAP card, so everybody behind you really knows, \u2018Wow, she really can’t afford anything. She had to put half her basket back.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Texas Senate Bill 379<\/a> was passed last year, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture granted a waiver to make the change, which became effective April 1. The law was one in a slate of legislation dubbed \u201cMake Texas Healthy Again,\u201d influenced by the agenda of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/p>\n In the weeks following the law\u2019s implementation, shoppers like Allen are navigating what it means for their regular grocery runs \u2014 as are the retailers tasked with enforcing the changes at the checkout counter.<\/p>\n Retailers interpret the law<\/p>\n Leading up to April, Texas Health and Human Services released guidelines<\/a> on what types of items should be excluded from SNAP. They include candy bars, taffy and gum as well as chocolate or yogurt-coated raisins and nuts and crystallized dried fruit. Drinks that include more than five grams of added sugar are also off the table, as well as drinks with any amount of artificial sweetener. Exceptions included milk-based products and medical-grade electrolyte drinks, like Pedialyte.<\/p>\n Not all sugary items<\/a> are affected by the change. Pantry staples like baking sugar, chocolate chips and sprinkles aren\u2019t affected. Neither are sweet cereals or snack foods like granola bars, ice cream and trail mix.<\/p>\n The guidelines stopped short of providing an itemized list. Individual retailers have to interpret the guidance and apply it to items they stock.<\/p>\n At Austin\u2019s locally-owned Fresh Plus grocery stores, that task fell to John Robertson, who updated the stores\u2019 point-of-sale system to reflect the items that were newly ineligible.<\/p>\n \u201cYou use Google a lot to get the internet’s interpretation. You look at the law and how it’s written,\u201d Robertson said.<\/p>\n Going through individual items in the stores\u2019 inventory was time-consuming, he said. Even though he said Fresh Plus processes relatively few SNAP transactions, the process took around three days to complete. In some cases, the answer was clear-cut, like with traditional sodas. But sometimes he had to scrutinize nutrition labels: for instance, what about newer prebiotic sodas that use natural sweeteners?<\/p>\n \u201cI found myself going out and having to look at basically every single can to see how much added sugar was in that particular line,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Aside from prebiotic sodas, some drinks that many folks might think of as healthy \u2014 like juice and sports drinks \u2014 don\u2019t pass a close label check: while Welch\u2019s 100% Grape Juice doesn\u2019t have added sugars, a 10-ounce bottle of Welch\u2019s Grape Juice Cocktail has 20 grams. A 12-fluid-ounce serving of Mountain Berry Blast Powerade has 21 grams of added sugars.<\/p>\n Retailers can face penalties<\/a> if they allow SNAP benefits where they shouldn\u2019t, including fines and even prison time. Robertson said Fresh Plus erred on the side of marking items as ineligible when there wasn\u2019t a clear-cut answer.<\/p>\n ‘It’s expensive to eat healthy’<\/p>\n Gary Huddleston, a grocery industry consultant for the Texas Retailers Association, said most retailers began preparing for the change last summer when the USDA granted Texas\u2019 SNAP waiver, and that the state had provided a template for in-store signage alerting people to the change.<\/p>\n Some stores, like H-E-B, posted signs in sections of the store near items that might be affected \u2014 like the energy drink aisle. But Allen said several stores she visited, including Target, didn\u2019t have any signs. Interview requests from KUT to large chain retailers, including H-E-B and Target, went unanswered.<\/p>\n \u201cThe clerk [at Target] had no idea what I could and could not buy,\u201d Allen said. \u201cNo one could guide me on, \u2018OK, is this not an approved item?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Mina Davis runs a grassroots organization called Valley of Hope, which works to connect residents in Del Valle and the rural outskirts of Austin with food resources. Davis said many of her clients who are SNAP recipients had similar experiences to Allen, and that implementation and training about the new law has been more consistent by some retailers than others.<\/p>\n She said that can cause hiccups that can be hurtful to customers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s disempowering and it’s frustrating, because you want to buy something that’s fun \u2026 and maybe you’re not really the person that this media paints you out to be,\u201d Davis said. \u201cBut all of a sudden, there’s that stop, and the [store clerk\u2019s] just as confused as you are.\u201d<\/p>\n Allen said she has relied on SNAP benefits \u2014 around $400 loaded onto her Lone Star Card each month \u2014 since losing her job as a project manager around a year ago. Since then, she\u2019s been looking for full-time employment while doing hair and selling T-shirts to make ends meet.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s the economy,\u201d Allen said. \u201cI’m a professional, and it’s just been really hard to land a job, so I’m using [SNAP] to feed my child and myself.\u201d<\/p>\n When Allen learned about the new restrictions to SNAP, she wasn\u2019t concerned at first; she said she doesn\u2019t often buy candy, sodas or energy drinks. But when she realized many juices were affected, she wondered if the new law could also apply to things like fruit snacks and granola bars, depending on what store she visits. And she noticed that many of the organic and 100% fruit juices that were still eligible under SNAP were more expensive.<\/p>\n \u201c[It\u2019s] having to have someone quickly tell you that you need to change the way you eat, because basically that’s what it is: \u2018You need to change the way you feed your family,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s very expensive to eat healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n Other challenges facing SNAP<\/p>\n The new restrictions to SNAP come amid a mounting national conversation about the supplemental food benefit program. A number of Republican-led states, including Louisiana and Florida, have made similar restrictions. Democrat-led Colorado will also restrict soft drinks at the end of this month.<\/p>\n But Celia Cole, CEO of Feeding Texas, a statewide network of food banks, said the restrictions on candy and sweetened drinks are ultimately a small change compared to what could be coming for the program. A provision of U.S. House Resolution 1, also known as the \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill Act,\u201d will require states to take on more of the administrative cost of running their SNAP programs. Additionally, if states have a high error rate for SNAP spending \u2014 mistakes in how the program\u2019s money is issued \u2014 they could be required to take on a portion of the cost of benefits, which are currently entirely federally funded.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Texas, that could mean having to put up tens of millions of dollars just to keep the program whole,\u201d Cole said in a March 25 interview. \u201cAny reduction in access to benefits or eligibility, or simply walking away from the program, would be obviously really devastating for the 3.5 million or so Texans that participate and that use these benefits to put food on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n