If there is one thing I am certain of, it is that everyone is entitled to food choice autonomy. This includes choice for families participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps). Families know best how to choose food that aligns with their preferences, values, cultural needs, and budget. They deserve to do so without undue external constraints. The government shouldn’t preempt their decisions in a misguided attempt to improve health by unnecessarily targeting low-income families.   

This is especially true given that Arkansas has the sixth-highest poverty level nationwide at 15.7%, the highest food insecurity overall at 18.9%, and an even higher childhood hunger rate at 25%. We also have the third-lowest SNAP participation rate nationwide at only 69%. Arkansas should be addressing the situation that our lowest-income families are already in by:  

• Eliminating the asset limit that prevents SNAP recipients from being able to save money (without losing SNAP benefits) so that they can securely transition off of benefits.  

• Raising the income limit to at least 200% of the poverty guidelines, which would increase access. This would also help reduce a benefit cliff that many families found themselves approaching when, for example, a small pay raise can mean the loss of benefits.  

• Ensuring incentive-based programs are fully funded and responsive to current grocery prices (e.g., the Double Up Food Bucks Program, which provides additional support for families to purchase fresh produce from participating farmers’ markets and grocery stores).  

• Simplifying the SNAP application process and making it more accessible to rural communities, particularly as we look forward to a looming recession likely to affect those families on the margins first.   

During the legislative session, Representative Jon Eubanks and Senator Jonathan Dismang filed House Bill 1915, which would have raised the asset limit to a modest $6,000, but it failed to advance out of the Senate. However, the legislature did not take up any other common-sense reforms. Instead, the recent legislative session saw the passage of Senate Bill 217 (now Act 969), which requires the Secretary of the Arkansas Department of Human Services to request a waiver annually until it is approved to remove candy and soft drinks (though these terms were not defined in the bill) from approved food items under SNAP.  

In addition, on April 15, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders submitted a much broader request to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to exclude from SNAP in Arkansas: “soda, low and no-calorie soda, fruit and vegetable drinks with less than 50% natural juice, unhealthy drinks, and candy.” The waiver specifies that candy will include confectionery products with flour and artificially sweetened candy. However, the exclusion will not extend to flavored water, carbonated flavored water, and sports drinks. The waiver request states this will “encourage low-income Arkansans to eat better.” Researchers have been clear that adding to the restrictions that already limit access to SNAP benefits does little to make SNAP recipients healthier.  

The implication is that families on SNAP have higher purchasing rates of these items overall. This is untrue. Research has continually shown that families on SNAP have similar diets and purchasing habits to those who do not use SNAP benefits. Americans at all income levels have diets that don’t satisfy federal dietary guidelines. It is a choice to stigmatize SNAP participants. It is also telling that the waiver request includes references to “food stamps,” which was eliminated 17 years ago and renamed “SNAP” to decrease stigma. The decision to micromanage SNAP participants’ autonomy in food choices is a distraction from the root causes of food insecurity and poor health outcomes. It also further stigmatizes SNAP, a successful anti-hunger and anti-poverty program.  

Families living at or below 130% of the poverty guidelines and accessing SNAP to supplement their monthly food purchases are often already limited in choice due to food deserts, meaning regions with limited access to nutritious and affordable food. Many families do not have access to a grocery store that is an authorized SNAP retailer. They are instead limited to perhaps only one convenience store or gas station that accepts SNAP. Addressing food deserts is critical to improving health. However, despite a state-level task force on the issue, no bills were filed this session to increase access to high-quality SNAP-approved retailers in Arkansas.   

There are many reasons SNAP restrictions would not make America healthier. In part, we know that diet is one of many contributors to chronic diseases. Levels of physical activity, exposure to pollution, stress, and genetics, among other factors, shape your risk for chronic diseases. Food insecurity, which in 2023, impacted nearly 570,000 Arkansans – more than 168,000 of whom were children – is a source of toxic stress associated with adverse psychological health outcomes not only during childhood, but also well into adulthood. These adverse health outcomes include depression and anxiety, as well as a greater risk of obesity, hypertension, and other cardiometabolic diseases. 

Furthermore, we cannot discount the impact that structural racism has on health. In 2018, a study examining the impact of structural racism on food insecurity found that “the relationship between race/ethnicity and food insecurity is complex and is intertwined with other established determinants of food insecurity, including poverty, unemployment, incarceration, and disability.” There is a clear concentration of social and economic disadvantage over the lifetime of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) that contributes significantly to higher rates of food insecurity and, therefore, to poor health outcomes. To address food insecurity holistically, we need bills and administrative policies that focus on strategies to address historic racial, ethnic, and class inequalities as they relate to food insecurity. Instead, during this legislative session we saw the elimination of affirmative action and programs to provide opportunities to BIPOC communities, such as scholarships that would benefit BIPOC teachers who taught in our lowest-resourced areas like the Arkansas Delta.   

Ultimately, this decision to call for more restrictions on the already limited SNAP program is a smokescreen to hide behind the fact that we are failing tens of thousands of Arkansas’s families who struggle to afford groceries. Benefits are far too difficult to access, and the benefits that are available are not sufficient considering the rising costs at the grocery store. We are now about to further fail families by trying to restrict food choice. Food security should be our focus, not food restriction.  

I encourage everyone to submit comments on the governor’s proposal to restrict foods from SNAP. You have until May 15, 2025 to email your comments to DHS at ORP@dhs.arkansas.gov.