As of April 1, Texans enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — commonly known as food stamps — can no longer use their benefits to purchase sweetened beverages or candy.
The change makes Texas one of the first states in the nation to restrict SNAP purchases to nutritional food items, a move that fiscal conservatives and taxpayer advocates have pushed for at the federal level for years.
The reform comes amid a broader national conversation about how taxpayer-funded benefit programs are administered and whether the federal government should have more oversight over what SNAP dollars can buy.
SNAP, which is federally funded and state-administered, currently covers a wide range of food and beverage items. Critics of the program have long argued that allowing benefit dollars to be spent on candy and sugary drinks undermines the program’s stated nutritional mission and wastes public resources.
Texas’ new restrictions limit what SNAP recipients can purchase with their benefits, drawing a clear line between food staples and discretionary junk food items.
