{"id":256522,"date":"2026-04-19T05:03:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T05:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/256522\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T05:03:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T05:03:31","slug":"how-snap-food-restrictions-may-affect-east-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/256522\/","title":{"rendered":"How SNAP food restrictions may affect East Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

TYLER, Texas (KETK<\/a>) \u2013 In this week\u2019s episode of East Texas In Focus, KETK\u2019s Nolan Hoffman got to learn about how recent changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program<\/a> (SNAP) will affect East Texans at the grocery store.<\/p>\n

SNAP restrictions on sugar intake to impact 3.4 million Texans <\/a><\/p>\n

Starting on April 1, the State of Texas implemented new restrictions on SNAP that block Texas families from using the program to buy items that contain more than 5 grams of sugar or sweeteners like candy, soda, energy drinks, chocolate-covered fruit and chewing gum.<\/p>\n

These new rules are affecting some 3.4 million Texans who use the SNAP program to help buy their groceries. Critics of the restrictions say they\u2019ll make it harder for Texas families to get food while supporters and the State of Texas say the goal is to have families make healthier choices.<\/p>\n

Nolan spoke with Feeding Texas CEO Celia Cole about the impact these restrictions will have on SNAP participants. One concern is that certain people actually need more sugar because of certain health conditions like diabetes, which can require a person to increase their blood sugar with a sugary snack or beverage if they have a rapid drop in blood sugar. According to Cole, those participants would now have to by those items with their own money.<\/p>\n

Texas SNAP funding loss threatened by accuracy concerns <\/a><\/p>\n

Even more changes to SNAP came to Texas as the state faced losing millions of dollars thanks to the \u201cOne\u00a0Big, Beautiful\u00a0Bill\u201d,\u00a0which would retract federal SNAP funding if the state didn\u2019t meet new federal standards for payment accuracy.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s episode of East Texas In Focus also featured United States Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/p>\n

To hear what they have to say about recent changes to SNAP and more, check out this week\u2019s full episode of East Texas In Focus at the top of this article.<\/p>\n

You can now stream KETK and FOX51 News live 24\/7 on your smart TV\u00a0with\u00a0KETK+<\/a>,\u00a0our brand-new app! No antenna, cable, or satellite needed\u2014watch for free, anytime.\u00a0Just download it on your Roku, Apple TV, or Fire TV and start streaming.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KETK.com | FOX51.com. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TYLER, Texas (KETK) \u2013 In this week\u2019s episode of East Texas In Focus, KETK\u2019s Nolan Hoffman got to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[96567,2604,2608,7951,8096,4842,27,29,28,9011],"class_list":["post-256522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-blood-sugar","tag-east-texas","tag-ketk","tag-snap","tag-supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program","tag-texans","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tyler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}