SNAP Recipients Fight Back In Junk Food Crackdown
Source: Newsweek
Published Mar 12, 2026 at 06:43 AM EDT updated Mar 12, 2026 at 08:35 AM EDT
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients have filed a lawsuit against the federal government, arguing that new restrictions on what they can purchase with the benefits are unlawful and harmful to people who rely on the program.
Five plaintiffs sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, seeking to halt and then overturn SNAP "waivers" that block benefits being used to purchase foods considered low in nutritional value, such as candy and as sugary drinks. The USDA told Newsweek on Thursday it will "not comment on pending litigation."
Why It Matters
New food restrictions waivers have been approved in 22 states, with several already implementing the new blocks. The changes impact millions of low- and no-income Americans who depend on benefits to buy groceries.
The case challenges a policy shift backed by officials in the Trump administration that supporters say is intended to promote healthier diets. The plaintiffs argue the restrictions make it harder for families to access food and manage health conditions, while also creating confusion for shoppers at grocery store checkouts.
Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/snap-recipients-fight-back-junk-food-ban-waiver-lawsuit-11664497
Link to SUIT (PDF viewer) is here
bucolic_frolic
(54,909 posts)There are dozens of other additives that amount to some altered form of sweetener ... polysaccharides, gums of many varieties, modified food starch to name a few. They alter gut bacteria. We weren't meant to eat this stuff.
niyad
(131,927 posts)twodogsbarking
(18,530 posts)Maybe it isn't even about the money.
niyad
(131,927 posts)since it is assumed that women do most of the grocery shopping. And we KNOW women cannot make intelligent decisions on their own.
jfz9580m
(17,063 posts)So someone like this nice Epstein associated lady (who was not raised religious, but swayed by pseudoscientific bilge like Intelligent Design) worked on:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Picard
She wanted to rehabilitate Epstein. She is a creepy person like all of the MIT Media Lab.
rampartd
(4,544 posts)seems to exceed what it would cost to just give snap to anyone who applies.
FadedMullet
(878 posts)......"create confusion". Call me a reactionary, but there is nothing wrong with the public buying good food for the poor, instead of "All-American" junk food.
choie
(6,889 posts)Why should we do so with SNAP? Or is it because snap benefits the poors?
orangecrush
(30,060 posts)SunSeeker
(58,223 posts)I survived on food stamps as a kid, I know it was humiliating enough for my mom to pay with food stamps. To not even be able to buy your kid a birthday cake is just too much.
niyad
(131,927 posts)The wealthy and powerful can dictate what we eat, while McDonalds hamburgers are served in the White House.
Jacson6
(1,952 posts)I receive a small stipend of SNAP each month as a retired OM that I use to buy chicken, hamburger and staple to last through the month. IME.
niyad
(131,927 posts)Torchlight
(6,747 posts)is as affordable as many junk foods. Until then, they sound little more like sanctimonious attempts to tell others how to better live their lives than rational, thought-out positions. As long as luxury jets with bedrooms for officials are so common, I'll look at cutting costs there rather than scrutinizing the dining tables of people whose circumstances I dont know.
quaint
(4,971 posts)niyad
(131,927 posts)Oliver Bolliver Butt
(143 posts)niyad
(131,927 posts)Oliver Bolliver Butt
(143 posts)niyad
(131,927 posts)Cirsium
(3,874 posts)Too many of the posts on this thread?
Oliver Bolliver Butt
(143 posts)Cirsium
(3,874 posts)Now explain how my remarks about agriculture are the reason "we" lose elections, if you could please.
Torchlight
(6,747 posts)Just a guess, though.
Cirsium
(3,874 posts)That is ridiculous. You are judging food as though it were widgets. Yes, luxury widgets will always be more expensive than junk widgets.
Food is free. I live and work in a fruit district and there are thousands of "feral" fruit trees here producing fruit every year, free for the taking. Go get it. You pay for food in order to support the people tending and harvesting, cleaning and packing, storing and shipping the produce to you. You are paying for convenience as well as for your health and safety.
I have been lucky, eating fresh fruit off the tree every day in the season. We have a policy here - no one goes hungry in this county so long as we are farming. But many people do not have access to fresh healthy food. Most poor people make very intelligent food decisions. We have to. (I say "we" because you don't make much money working on the farm). Poor people make much better dollar to calorie ratio decisions than well-off people do.
As I have often said...
Never before in the existence of humankind has there ever been a population as ignorant about and alienated from the source of their own food as modern Americans.
Oliver Bolliver Butt
(143 posts)Cirsium
(3,874 posts)Yep, that's what I said.
Oliver Bolliver Butt
(143 posts)Cirsium
(3,874 posts)Thanks for the comic relief.
Torchlight
(6,747 posts)Hope the font choice makes up for it!
moonscape
(5,695 posts)in food deserts.
niyad
(131,927 posts)EX500rider
(12,516 posts)They're free to buy all kinds of macaroni and cheese etc and any kind of other processed crap they want, just not sugary drinks and candy
Torchlight
(6,747 posts)niyad
(131,927 posts)and those that have been proposed over the years. Like the ones proposed in WI several yyears ago, forbidding real cheese (in WI), dried beans, rice, etc.
Disdain and sanctimonious judgement are just oozing from your posts on this subject.
See post 15.
EX500rider
(12,516 posts)I agree with that.
Our mileage May differ on who's doing it though
All I saw on the blurb is they were not alowing candy and soda.
niyad
(131,927 posts)everything I said.
cstanleytech
(28,434 posts)I'd say an increase of an minimum of 200 a month per child for produce would probably help a lot.
niyad
(131,927 posts)CTyankee
(68,114 posts)Or maybe they hold down two jobs and simply can't be home to cook. Or they may simply be homeless.
EX500rider
(12,516 posts)Just not sugary drinks and candy
CTyankee
(68,114 posts)We don't "trust" them to buy the food WE deem OK to eat?
What can we do to help them eat better foods? Offer them fresh, better foods! Make it easy to get them.
EX500rider
(12,516 posts)I think subsidizing diabetes may be a bad idea, ymmv
CTyankee
(68,114 posts)Health care professionals are the people who can help here.
cstanleytech
(28,434 posts)CTyankee
(68,114 posts)Or maybe they simply don't have ready access to those foods.
BaronChocula
(4,473 posts)I'll just put that there.
niyad
(131,927 posts)BaronChocula
(4,473 posts)these are "red states" going back at least three presidential elections. Simpleton magas would probably least expect this much pushback from ordinarily "safe zones."
niyad
(131,927 posts)BaronChocula
(4,473 posts)That's why it was in quotes.
niyad
(131,927 posts)Bettie
(19,614 posts)I'm not sure what point you are trying to make. Just say it, whatever it is.
70sEraVet
(5,446 posts)is that poor people are undeserving. New restrictions, but an old tradition.
pcdb
(109 posts)This is another issue that Democrats used to support but are now against. I guess we'll just keep driving the cost of healthcare up.
niyad
(131,927 posts)about people's health?
pcdb
(109 posts)That doesn't mean Democrats have to want people to get diabetes just to be on the other side.
niyad
(131,927 posts)coul address some of the other, more immediate, issues being discussed in this thread?
pcdb
(109 posts)I don't take RFK seriously, but that doesn't mean I think SNAP should be providing diabetes to poor people. I feel like we have the need to be against everything Trump is for even if we agree with him. Up until recently, it was the libertarian position that government should have no say in how SNAP is spent, now it's us.
I've seen threads where some Democrats sound like free market capitalists opposing tariffs and other protectionist policies... things Democrats used to support. We don't have to turn against are own policy positions just because Trump agrees with us.
niyad
(131,927 posts)virtue signalling that seems to surround every discussion about "healthy eating" and "junk food restrictions", wherever they occur, I would like people to keep in mind one little fact. Many people live in the "food deserts", meaning there are no grocery stores within ten miles. The ONLY access to any kind of food in those areas is convenience stores, with their limited choices. And before I hear anything about "just get on a bus", as one pontificator snarled at me several years ago in a meeting, many of those same areas do not have decent public transit, either. And, even if there is, hauling bags of groceries on and off buses, particularly if one has to transfer, or has mobility isssues, is not a picnic.
When one defends all these restrictions, whatever one's stated reason, one must ask oneself why it is okay to tell these people what they may, or may not, purchase with OUR money. Does one tell the military how to spend the trillions they get? Does one restrict the oil companies? Big AG? Big Pharma? And then think about what those answers say about oneself.
Polybius
(21,839 posts)Should beer be allowed? How about household items? Or would those be the cutoff in your opinion? For the record, I am all for allowing sweets to be purchased with SNAP.
niyad
(131,927 posts)qualify as "nutrition". Allowing any kind of alcohol is, in all likelihood, never going to happen.
Polybius
(21,839 posts)The other poster thinks it all should be covered. Post 79.
Celerity
(54,254 posts)https://www.hhs.texas.gov/news/2026/03/new-snap-purchase-restrictions-take-effect-april-1
Cirsium
(3,874 posts)FFS.
What is the matter with people here?
Polybius
(21,839 posts)SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It was created for things that can be ingested, with the exception of liquor and vitamins. Allowing household supplies won't happen, unless you enjoy Tide Pods with your coffee.
Cirsium
(3,874 posts)It is truly abhorrent that shaming and misogyny masquerade as concern for people with limited means.
Polybius
(21,839 posts)I am all for SNAP covering sweets/soda, but liquor and household supplies? Come on. We have cash assistance for that.
Why control what people buy at all? That is a right wing approach.
Response to Cirsium (Reply #114)
PeaceWave This message was self-deleted by its author.
Polybius
(21,839 posts)SNAP is for consumption that isn't alcohol or vitamins.
Cirsium
(3,874 posts)Being a Democrat is not for scolding and lecturing those who are less fortunate. It is not for punching down.
There was no place among this royalty for our many thousands of small business men and merchants who sought to make a worthy use of the American system of initiative and profit. They were no more free than the worker or the farmer. Even honest and progressive-minded men of wealth, aware of their obligation to their generation, could never know just where they fitted into this dynastic scheme of things.
It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over Government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. In its service new mercenaries sought to regiment the people, their labor, and their property. And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man.
The hours men and women worked, the wages they received, the conditions of their labor these had passed beyond the control of the people, and were imposed by this new industrial dictatorship. The savings of the average family, the capital of the small business man, the investments set aside for old age other peoples money these were tools which the new economic royalty used to dig itself in.
Those who tilled the soil no longer reaped the rewards which were their right. The small measure of their gains was decreed by men in distant cities.
Throughout the Nation, opportunity was limited by monopoly. Individual initiative was crushed in the cogs of a great machine. The field open for free business was more and more restricted. Private enterprise, indeed, became too private. It became privileged enterprise, not free enterprise.
An old English judge1 once said: Necessitous men are not free men. Liberty requires opportunity to make a living a living decent according to the standard of the time, a living which gives man not only enough to live by, but something to live for.
For too many of us the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality. A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other peoples property, other peoples money, other peoples labor other peoples lives. For too many of us life was no longer free; liberty no longer real; men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness.
FDR
Acceptance Speech for the Renomination for the Presidency, Philadelphia, Pa., June 27, 1936
Polybius
(21,839 posts)You can buy liquor, clothes, detergent or cigarettes with cash assistance. SNAP is for Supplemental Nutrition.
PeaceWave agreed with me. He deleted his post after I told him that's what cash assistance is for. You're alone with thinking SNAP should cover it all.
Cirsium
(3,874 posts)I doubt it, though. Say I am. So what?
What is the difference between these two scenarios:
1) A young single mother uses SNAP benefits to buy her child a $10 birthday present, and then spends $10 cash here at our fruit stand.
2) The same young single mother uses SNAP benefits to buy $10 worth of fruit here at our fruit stand, and then spends $10 cash to buy her child a birthday present.
Polybius
(21,839 posts)I'm all for the young single mother getting cash assistance from the government, in addition to SNAP benefits.
Unless you want to combine the two, while bringing up the payments? That conceivably could work.
Cirsium
(3,874 posts)It was created - as so many programs are - as a shabby compromise. The shame, barriers, conditions and control elements that the Republicans love - especially when used against women and minority populations - get added to any benefits.
Polybius
(21,839 posts)What part of Supplemental Nutrition don't you understand? Even Bernie wouldn't agree with that position.
Cirsium
(3,874 posts)What part of right wing talking points don't you understand? We've seen where the
"normal approach" in politics has gotten us. If what you say about Sanders is true, then he is wrong.
What I do understand about Supplemental Nutrition is that it is a response to the fact that millions of people in the country struggle to have access to adequate nutrition. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. The notion that we need to force the most vulnerable among us to get adequate nutrition obvious says that their lack of access to adequate nutrition is their fault. That position is ignorant and it is cruel.
Of course on the farm we would rather that people come here rather tha to the junk food aisle - or any aisle - in the supermarket. And overwhelmingly, they already do. I rarely see SNAP recipients in the local store, but I see them in the farm market all the time. Why is that? Because people who are poor make much better decisions than those with significant discretionary income do. We have no choice. The premise used to justify restriction on the use of the (absurdly picayune) SNAP benefits, as often expressed by Republican politicians, is that people who are in poverty are not very smart and don't make good decisions.
Googling just now I find dozens (hundreds?) of right wing sites - "why do poor people make bad decisions?" Oh, is that what's wrong with the country? Poor people making bad decisions? What, unlike the wealthy?
From the NIH:
"Dietary food choice based on price per calorie best matches actual consumption patterns and may therefore be the most salient price metric for low-income populations."
People with limited means are maximizing their dollar to calorie ratio, something better off people do not need to do. Does that result in crappier food often? Yes, of course. But that is not because people are making bad choices, it is result of business decisions over which the consumers have little or no control.
"Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of America. I'll show you something to make you change your mind." Amazing that I need to argue for compassion here.
I keep glancing up to the top of the page. This IS Democratic Underground, isn't it?
Polybius
(21,839 posts)Last edited Mon Mar 16, 2026, 08:11 PM - Edit history (1)
Stop making it about talking points. Read what SNAP stands for. You're not buying detergent with it anywhere.
IzzaNuDay
(1,280 posts)Once I was on a business trip to an urban area, and I wanted to find some healthy snacks during my trip. I was fortunate to have a rental car. But even then, it was a challenge to find a grocery store in this area.
I found a small grocery store, but the produce quality was awful. And the first thing I thought was how do the residents ever find the same foods I look for? Yeah, we definitely have food deserts. And I am afraid its by design.
cstanleytech
(28,434 posts)niyad
(131,927 posts)Very well said.
niyad
(131,927 posts)amoung progressives, but. . .
Alice B.
(729 posts)Or who have been employed at any point. Technically theyre taxpayers, too.
Until I get to have a say in any and all of the stuff my tax dollars are going toward, I have no fs to give about what SNAP recipients buy.
Its always a nanny state until it isnt.
niyad
(131,927 posts)electric_blue68
(26,784 posts)when I had food stamps we couldn't buy soda, or candy. Not that I bought a lot anyway. Probably not chips, etc, either. Again, only bought a small to modest amount.
NH Ethylene
(31,329 posts)I don't recall it being a problem for me. I certainly wasn't going to feed my two toddlers any junk food anyway.
electric_blue68
(26,784 posts)In the 2000s, 2010s.
Polybius
(21,839 posts)Early 2020's.
electric_blue68
(26,784 posts)but that's good. Nothing wrong with a bit of that
chouchou
(3,107 posts)Wouldn't a percentage be more fair Like 15 percent or 20 percent for "fun"
It's amazing how many Americans stand up and rant about the poor get free food..."They should sweep the streets"
But..They don't mind when the politicians, Military, con people and corporations steal tons of money
from the taxpayers.. Grrrrr.
niyad
(131,927 posts)definition of "fun"???
I absolutely agree with the rest of your post.
chouchou
(3,107 posts)....if there was a little bit of regular structure. My personal beliefs are; Give them the damn food/clothes cards..
and shut down the nasty overview. Yes, I'm trying to walk on both rails.
niyad
(131,927 posts)and annoyed and exhausted and ENRAGED as I am from many decades of dealing with those hate-filled assholes, I can tell you that NOTHING will stop them from trashing the poor, the immigrants, the disabled. .actually. . . anybody who isn't like them.
chouchou
(3,107 posts)...and I'm going to win a Rolls Royce today..
niyad
(131,927 posts)Can I have the first ride in your new Rolls?
chouchou
(3,107 posts)MichMan
(17,086 posts)This is just an additional restriction it would appear.
niyad
(131,927 posts)GenThePerservering
(3,280 posts)I used to live on food stamps in a food desert. I DID NOT WASTE IT ON SODA OR CANDY. It was tough enough to keep fed without that shit burning through what little I had.
Cirsium
(3,874 posts)Enough with the "I came through OK so I have no sympathy for those who didn't" bs. How's that?
niyad
(131,927 posts)Torchlight
(6,747 posts)Good luck!
niyad
(131,927 posts)of ALL the food in this country goes to waste. FIFTY PERCENT. We could feed everyone. And yet the ones at the top playing their ugly games make sure that the ones at the bottom are debating, fighting over, piously virtue signalling over, scraps. How it must amuse them.
Demobrat
(10,292 posts)Last edited Fri Mar 13, 2026, 03:43 PM - Edit history (1)
Its all well and good to say the money should go for fresh food, but where is the single mom living with her two kids in a motel room supposed to cook it? How about the one living in a trailer without a working stove? And if there is a stove, what about the pots and pans? Does everyone pack them up when they run from an abusive relationship?
Its so privileged to assume everyone has a burner and a pot to boil water for rice in. Its just not the case.
niyad
(131,927 posts)understood the prohibition against hot or prepared foods in SNAP. WTAF??? Who could possibly need them more???
Demobrat
(10,292 posts)I understand its impossible to get food stamps without an address. Maybe Im wrong. I hope so.
orangecrush
(30,060 posts)That clients can use for such purposes and to receive mail.
EX500rider
(12,516 posts)...that don't involve cooking
questionseverything
(11,768 posts)In one month but for sure no snickers for welfare kids
Got it!
EX500rider
(12,516 posts)And nothing stops the parent from buying a candy bar, just not with SNAP, which stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, not "supplemental candy program"
questionseverything
(11,768 posts)Similar not warsy bs but paid for by dod last September
But yes 90 plus billion for the finer things of life and no snickers for hungry kids, got it
Misplaced priorities
EX500rider
(12,516 posts)And if the kids are hungry their parents ought to be buying them real food not candy bars.
questionseverything
(11,768 posts)When did Democrats become so callous and ignorant?
ShepKat
(527 posts)there wasn't enough to buy crap bs fake food. Never bought soda, ever.
my kids ate ok and any dessert type food and potato chips were homemade
niyad
(131,927 posts)Demobrat
(10,292 posts)How lovely for you.
questionseverything
(11,768 posts)radicalleft
(575 posts)bullshit he peddled in the 80's.
Or nothing more than the Florida attempt to drug test "welfare" recipients.
It's red-meat for the base...
OC375
(825 posts)Candy isnt either. . Use some common sense. What a dumb foxhole to defend. Grow up. I dont recall eating a store bought cake outside a wedding until my 20s at work. 1st world problem.
berniesandersmittens
(13,168 posts)I have a problem with taking away from the poor. The very same people who gripe about sugary food get passed when someone buys seafood or lean steak with their SNAP.
Butmying a birthday cake for your child is not an extraordinary thing to ask for. Neither are cookies when you have to send some yo school for field day/valentines day.
What was so wrong with how it's been in the past? I'm more upset about tax write offs for yachts than I am about a dawned cake.
OC375
(825 posts)Just am not down spending the savings on candy. I think theres space to do both. YMMV
questionseverything
(11,768 posts)A individual bag of lays potato chips has 2-3 grams of protein ( from the animal fat the potatoes were cooked in)
So besides belittling people just for being poor and needing food, you are suggesting the least healthy option for them. We should be expanding food stamps since they create additional GDP ( good for growing the economy) not shame the current users!
OC375
(825 posts)Less crap. Cheaper $$$ for protein.
questionseverything
(11,768 posts)The snickers bar costs from $1.- $2. And if theres a tiny bag of nuts ( big if) it would cost $2.-$3. Soooooo
Since a person only gets $1.90 per meal half the money for the next meal is gone
OC375
(825 posts)Nothing for miles when I was growing up poor in a crappy quadplex with no parents around, for miles. Convenience store heaven, every 20 miles. Peanuts are protein. You argued nutrition Buy a large bag one day, and spread it over 7. Peanut butter is cheap and has sugar too. Twofer. Ramen for carbs. Skip chips. This isnt rocket science. More money for sure, but less crap.
questionseverything
(11,768 posts)Your solution was a big bag to split up , do you think this mythical big bag is at the convenient store? Because its not. And if it was it would be 3 times what it costs at Walmart.
You dont address chips being much worse for people , but I suppose the food police will attack that next.
I think most people make the best choices they can with in the scope of their choices.
I dont feel the need to punish people who didnt have many choices to start with. People who feel the need to control others less fortunate than themselves before they will help them creep me out.
OC375
(825 posts)Its reasonable being that the program is about supplemental nutrition. Everything has limits, even necessary government nutrition programs, and leaning on the old people who feel the need to control canard is just lazy. Well just have to disagree on this one.
NickB79
(20,316 posts)I'd speculate that even a majority of Democrats support restrictions on junk food purchased with SNAP funds.
orangecrush
(30,060 posts)NickB79
(20,316 posts)Demobrat
(10,292 posts)They get a fixed amount that goes to the store no matter what they buy.
Im not the food police.
Response to Demobrat (Reply #119)
PeaceWave This message was self-deleted by its author.
Demobrat
(10,292 posts)BannonsLiver
(20,517 posts)Anything other than that and people are treading into asshole territory.