The 41.7 million people who received monthly SNAP benefits in 2024 have long known they cannot use what were once called food stamps to purchase alcohol, tobacco, personal care products, or even hot and prepared foods.
In 2025, one state after another is adding soda pop to that “verboten” list, along with non-calorie sodas, fruit and vegetable drinks that contain less than 50 percent natural juice, and other unhealthy beverages, and all candy.
Those new restrictions will impact the 12.3 percent of the U.S. population receiving SNAP benefits.
Food stamps, renamed SNAP in 2008 for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, are the USDA’s major poverty program. At about $100 billion in 2024, SNAP represents 1.5 percent of total federal spending. With SNAP, taxpayers pick up about $1 for every $8 spent on all groceries.
So, where SNAP benefits can and cannot be spent impacts nutrition, food safety, and the entire food industry. Participation varies widely among the states. In 2024, only 4.8 percent of Utah’s population were SNAP clients, while 21.2 percent of New Mexico’s population was enrolled.
Gross monthly income limits determine who is eligible for the food subsidy. A single person earning $1,255 or less per month qualifies; the income limit for a family of four is $2,600 per month, with higher limits for larger families. SNAP benefits are limited to households earning less than 30 percent above the federal poverty level.
Currently, the decision-makers for national SNAP policy are Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Rollins and Kennedy are getting states to enlist in the Trump Administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) by signing “food choice waivers.”
Beginning next year, SNAP benefits will not apply to those additional unhealthy products in Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska and Utah. Other states could follow. Rollins, Kennedy and some governors are using waivers to amend the definition of food that may be purchased with SNAP benefits.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little said the waivers are “bringing commonsense to the government food assistance program.” The goal to “Make America Healthy Again” is primarily focused on young people, with sugary soft drinks often blamed for childhood obesity.
Secretary Rollins said each signed waiver “is yet another step closer to fulfilling President Trump’s promise to Make America Healthy Again.” Secretary Kennedy called on every governor to submit a waiver to eliminate sugary drinks. “Taxpayer dollars should never bankroll products that fuel the chronic disease epidemic,” he said.
The pandemic sent SNAP spending in 2021 to an all-time high of $132,2 billion. SNAP recipients in 2024 received an average of $188 monthly via an electronic transfer to their EB card for use at food retailers.
Monthly benefits amounted to around $93.8 billion in 2024, or a bout 93.5 percent of SNAP spending.
The rest went to various federal and state administrative and education costs.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said her state is leading the nation in “helping our most vulnerable citizens lead healthier lives.”
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