A group of food stamp recipients is taking the federal government to court, arguing new limits on what can be purchased with nutrition benefits go too far and could harm vulnerable families.
Five recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), challenging a series of pilot programs that restrict certain food purchases made with benefits. The plaintiffs, represented by the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, live in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
The USDA has approved 22 state waiver requests that block SNAP recipients from buying items considered “non-nutritious,” including candy, soda, energy drinks, and other junk foods. However, the exact restrictions vary from state to state.
According to the lawsuit, the policy changes create confusion for both recipients and retailers because each state now operates under a different definition of what qualifies as eligible food.
“The food restriction waivers contain no exceptions for individual medical, nutritional, or household circumstances. Instead, the food restriction waivers place on recipients and retailers the responsibility for determining whether a particular product is a permissible SNAP purchase under each state’s altered definition of ‘food,’” the suit reads.
One plaintiff, Amanda Johnson of Tennessee, says the restrictions could directly affect her disabled teenage daughter, who lives with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID). The lawsuit states that Johnson’s daughter can safely eat only a small number of specific foods.
“Because of her daughter’s ARFID, she can safely consume only a very limited number of ‘safe foods,’” the lawsuit says. “If she is unable to eat those foods, the only alternative is nutrition through a feeding tube.”
The USDA declined to comment on the lawsuit and referred questions to the Justice Department’s Office of Public Affairs.
Plaintiffs argue the agency violated the Administrative Procedure Act and are asking a federal court to block the pilot programs and delay any future waivers from taking effect.
I am confused… so is this woman saying her daughter can only eat junk food and drink unhealthy drinks?
I am not in one of the states that’s banned sweets and junk food from snap yet I am in North Carolina but I think is not fair that they want to tell people what they can or can’t buy to eat and since when did juices and water become junk food it don’t make any since to me all President Trump has done since he got President again is pick on us low income people and Robert Kennedy Jr too , banning the sweets and drinksand water isn’t going to make America healthy
I don’t think the government or anyone else should be able to tell you what you can eat and what you can’t .
how can they tell us what we can nor can’t eat or buy it’s not up to them we should be able to buy wat we want long as we want no one should be able tell anyone wat they can can’t have