Des Moines, IOWA (Grey Media iowa Capitol Bureau) -The new restriction on what SNAP recipients can buy with the benefits next year is causing confusion. Thursday, USDA approved Iowa’s request to prevent SNAP recipients from buying soda and candy with benefits.
Kim Reynolds, Governor, said he received a request because he had a high obesity rate.
Reynolds said, “We need to change to encourage healthy eating habits, protect future generations from diseases and to meet the core functions of SNAP.”
However, some health foods are trapped in a new guideline and some junk foods are still allowed.
The idea of this is to promote healthier meals, but the limit is not based on nutritional guidelines. Sales three exemptions. In January, SNAP purchases are limited to foods that the state does not pay taxes. The recipient can buy many healthy items such as eggs, milk, meat and fruits and vegetables. But they can still buy chips, ice cream and snack foods.
Healthy items such as soda and candy are limited, but healthy items such as certain Gra surprise bars, fruit strips and some trail mixes are also prohibited.
With Luke Elzinga Iowa hunger association He believes that the state should educate the SNAP recipient to do it and not to buy it to prevent confusion in the checkout line.
“We think that this will increase stigma for those who registered in SNAP. And again, we want to avoid this situation in a grocery store that pays attention to the fact that someone is participating in the program.”
Iowa is not the only state that makes this change. Nebraska has also enacted similar restrictions, and more Republicans are considering it.
This week, Robert F. Kennedy JR., the US Minister of Health and Welfare, told CNN: “We change the SNAP program to handle the US tsunami application to provide a snap giving up to get out of the snap.”
Elzinga says this is not a way to go.
“In fact, it is true that our state’s government sends messages to low -income Ios who are having a hard time not trusting them to make the best food for the family, and we think that is wrong.”
Elzinga says that the limit does not think that IOWANS will make it healthier.
“The biggest barrier for people in Snap Face to improve diet and eat healthier is the high cost of healthy food. And this request for the item has no effect on dealing with the economics of the item.”
Elzinga says that lawmakers should instead invest more in the “Double Up Food Bucks” program. It provides SNAP winners with incentives for purchasing fruits and vegetables grown locally.
This year, Iowa House passed a million dollars separately for the program, but the Senate never accepted it.
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Conner Hendricks deals with the state government and politics of the Gray Media Country in Iowa. Send an email to him Conner.hendricks@gray.tv; And follow him on Facebook Conner Hendricks TV In x/twitter @ConnerReportsAnd in tiktok @ConnerReports.
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