Arkansas will eliminate the ‘junk food’ of the Snap program
Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said taxpayers have been “subsidizing poor health” in the state of Arkansas, and announced on Tuesday that junk food is out of the table for food coupons recipients. (Credit: Sarah Huckabee Sanders through Facebook)
The governor of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, announced a plan to restrict the types of foods that can be purchased with food coupons, becoming one of the first governors to seek federal permission to prohibit articles such as soft drinks and sweets of the supplementary assistance program (SNAP).
At a press conference at the Arkansas Capitol on Tuesday, Sanders said that his administration had submitted an exemption request to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that would prohibit Snap’s use for soft drinks, sweet sweets and snacks made with flour, while eligible elements would expand to include chicken with hot rotisería, which is currently excluded.
“At this time you can use food coupons to buy a soda or a caramel bar at a service station, but you cannot use them to buy a chicken with griers raised in Arkansas in a purchasing store,” Sanders said. “That is the definition of madness.”
The United States Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, praised Sanders’ movement in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“Governor Sanders faces childish children’s disease, and begins with what families consume,” Rollins said. “Today’s exemption announcement is welcome, and I hope to pass through the focus process quickly. I encourage more states throughout the country to follow the bold leadership of states such as Arkansas while we make the United States again healthy.”
The executive orders of the Maha of the Governor of Indiana ‘Visionary’ of Kennedy applaud
The United States Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, on the left, and the governor of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, speaks out of the governor’s mansion at Little Rock, Arkansas, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP images)
The request for exemption is part of the “Make America Again Again” agenda of the Trump administration, which seeks to address chronic diseases and medical care costs when reforming federal nutrition programs.
“We finally have a president who, together with Secretary Rollins, has focused a laser on resolving the epidemic of chronic United States diseases,” Sanders said. “Reforming food coupons is a great place to start.”
Trump and health policies are highlighting in their second administration, with a change towards the solutions promoted by the State focused on prevention instead of treatment. The Maha initiative is directed in part by Rollins and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who also appeared on Tuesday in a similar announcement of Snap reform in Indiana.
Speaking in Arkansas, Rollins praised the leadership of the state.
“What we are doing here today is to affirm the value of federalism in all aspects of governance,” he said. “No federal bureaucrat can understand the needs of Arkansas families better than their Ownor.”
Rollins added that the SNAP reform was a key issue for Trump.
“This is one of the things I campaigned, and this is why the American people voted,” he said.
Sanders said the program, originally designed to combat hunger, has been twisted by obsolete regulations and perverse incentives.
“A third of our state has diabetes or it is prediabetic,” he said. “We are paying it in the front and in the back.”
The exemption would affect almost 350,000 Arkansas residents registered in SNAP and is scheduled to enter into force in July 2026 if approved.
Compliance with Sanders, 23% of SNAP spending, or $ 27 billion per year, is used in soft drinks, sweets and desserts, while the State spends $ 300 million annually treating chronic diseases through Medicaid.
Whole milk must return to schools, experts say: ‘Nutrition science has evolved’
“It’s not about removing anything,” he said. “It simply says that taxpayers will no longer cover the cost of junk food such as sweets and soft drinks.”
Rollins praised the Snap reform plan of Arkansas as a bold step to improve public health, calling Sanders “brave” for addressing childhood diseases through nutrition.
“We are working to realize the USDA and every dollar of the taxpayers about what is the best and most effective expense,” Rollins said.
Brooke Rollins attends an audience of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee on its nomination for the Secretary of Agriculture on January 23, 2025 in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
The Secretary of the Arkansas Human Services Department, Kristi Putnam, said that the same state agency executed by Snap also manages Medicaid.
“In a program, we have subsidized foods that we know that people make people less healthy. In the other, we are dedicating significant resources to make the same conditions caused by unhealthy foods,” he said. “This makes no sense.”
Critics, including the Food Research and Action Center, have argued that restrictions are punitive and not supported by the data. Commercial groups representing drinks of drinks and sweets have also criticized the measure.
As reported by Associated Press, the American drink accused officials of “choosing to be the Food Police”, while the National Association of Confemors described the “Melgudenden” plan.
Sanders approached Conerns about food costs, pointing out the work of his administration to eliminate the state -owned state tax.
“I think it would be difficult to say that you better buy a skittles package and that your hunger will be satisfied after that purchase,” he said.
The governor of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, appears on stage on the second day of the Republican National Convention in the FISVer forum on July 16, 2024 in Milwaukee. (Getty images)
Rollins emphasized that SNAP financing levels would not change. “It simply opens the opportunity to buy better and healthier foods in the future,” he said.
The Arkansas exemption application was formally submitted on Tuesday and includes a period of 30 -day public comments. The USDA and the Governor’s Office are expected to start coordinating the implementation details this week.
“We hope that this will be done very fast,” Sanders said.
Click here to get the Fox News application
The Governor Sanders office did not promote Fox News Digital Comments.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
