Six more states signed a pledge to ban Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments from being used on sugary foods or drinks.
Hawaii, Missouri, North Dakota, South Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee signed the pledge, which the Trump administration has pushed as part of its “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, spearheaded specifically by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the new expansion at a press conference alongside Kennedy and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz.
Rollins said the expansion of the program would empower “more states to put real nutrition back in SNAP and ensure taxpayer dollars support healthy choices for America’s families.”
The goal of the program is to incentivize more Americans to choose healthier alternatives. The Department of Agriculture provides some flexibility through waivers, with different states banning different foods and drinks from being purchased with SNAP. For example, Arkansas “Restricts purchase of soda, fruit and vegetable drinks with less than 50% natural juice, unhealthy drinks, and candy,” while West Virginia only bans SNAP from being used to purchase soda.
States that signed the waivers are provided with extra SNAP funds in exchange.
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“As the six documents here that were signed by Secretary Rollins today would attest, there’s a lot of interest in this; you get paid extra money,” Oz said on Wednesday.
With the addition of six new states, a total of 18 states have signed the pledge. Roughly 12% of Americans use SNAP payments to buy food.