US Iowans won't be able to buy pop, candy with SNAP dollars after USDA approves waiver request

Stephen Gruber-Miller
Des Moines Register
May 22, 2025, 8:25 p.m. CT

Gov. Kim Reynolds hopeful the Trump administration will grant Iowa a Summer EBT waiver
Reynolds says she plans to seek a waiver from the federal Summer EBT program so Iowa can set up its own summer meal program for kids.

Key Points​

• Beginning in 2026, Iowans will be banned from using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program dollars from buying certain foods, including pop and candy.
• President Donald Trump's U.S. Department of Education granted Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds' request for a federal waiver on May 22, allowing Iowa to restrict SNAP dollars from being used for some foods.

Iowans will be banned from using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program dollars to buy certain types of food after President Donald Trump's administration granted Gov. Kim Reynolds' request for a waiver.

When it takes effect, the federal waiver will only allow Iowans to use SNAP dollars to buy foods that are exempt from sales tax in Iowa. That means beginning Jan. 1, 2026, Iowans will not be able to use SNAP dollars to buy items such as candy, pop and other carbonated beverages.

"Soaring obesity rates have brought our nation and state to a crossroads," Reynolds said in a statement. "To promote healthy eating and protect future generations from disease — and to ensure SNAP fulfills its core function — we need a change. Thank you to Secretary Rollins and her team for helping make that change happen."

Reynolds, a Republican, announced May 22 that U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins had approved the state's request from a waiver to exempt certain foods from SNAP, which is run by USDA. It took Rollins just 10 days to grant the request after Iowa submitted it May 12.

"President Trump has given our nation a once in a generation opportunity to change the health trajectory for our entire country," Rollins said in a statement. "On my first day as secretary, I sent a call to states to innovate, and Gov. Kim Reynolds stepped up to take action. I look forward to signing even more waivers in the days ahead as we continue to restore the health of our country."

Anti-hunger advocates have said Iowans should be trusted to make their own choices about what foods they buy.

"Iowans should be trusted to make the best food choices for their families," Sheila Hansen, a board member of the Iowa Hunger Coalition and policy advocate and government relations manager for Common Good Iowa, said when the state submitted its waiver request. "Let’s make sure all Iowans have greater access to nutritious food, not punish our low-income neighbors and deny kids a candy bar when they want a treat."

Nearly 260,000 Iowans were enrolled in SNAP as of fiscal year 2024.

Republicans in Iowa and nationally are pursuing changes to SNAP, food programs​

Earlier this month, the USDA granted a separate waiver request from Reynolds to exempt Iowa from the Summer EBT program. Instead, Iowa will start up a program called "Healthy Kids Iowa" that will allow low-income families with kids to access $40 worth of food per child each month during the summer at food distribution sites around the state.

Iowa will receive $9.1 million to run Healthy Kids Iowa and the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services expects it to serve 65,000 kids.

The federal waiver comes after the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass Trump's proposed tax cut bill, which includes changes to SNAP that would require states to pay part of the costs for the program, which has historically been 100% federally funded. The bill also changes work requirements and eligibility for some SNAP recipients.

Iowa Republicans have also tried in the past to limit which foods Iowans can buy with SNAP dollars. This year, the Iowa House passed a bill to do so, but it did not receive a vote in the Senate.

Two years ago, Reynolds signed a law instituting new asset limits and requiring regular eligibility checks for recipients of SNAP and other public assistance programs. Iowa is still in the process of rolling out those requirements.

Source (Archive)

 

[Soyjak Enjoyer]

There's something kinda dystopian about it, work a job so you can get off gov benefits and buy the premium goyslop. It's kind of an arbitrary line to draw too whether the goal is health or only subsidizing the essentials. You can't buy a chocolate bar but you can still buy a bag of baking chocolate. Still from a pragmatic perspective this will achieve the goal of getting one of the least healthy groups to eat healthier

Found this from 2017:

The findings show that the No. 1 purchases by SNAP households are soft drinks, which accounted for 5 percent of the dollars they spent on food. The category of ‘sweetened beverages,’ which includes soft drinks, fruit juices, energy drinks and sweetened teas, accounted for almost 10 percent of the dollars they spent on food. “In this sense, SNAP is a multibillion-dollar taxpayer subsidy of the soda industry,” said Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. “It’s pretty shocking.”

Over all, the report found, SNAP households spent about 40 cents of every dollar at the grocery store on “basic items” like meat, fruits, vegetables, milk, eggs and bread. Another 40 cents of every dollar was spent on “cereal, prepared foods, dairy products, rice and beans.” Lastly, 20 cents of each dollar was spent on a broad category of junk foods that included “sweetened beverages, desserts, salty snacks, candy and sugar.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20250213203204/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/13/well/eat/food-stamp-snap-soda.html

Or alcohol wait what the fuck?

Eh, you need wine to cook

 

[vanilla_pepsi_head]

This is autism genocide.

It'll be ok, afaik the nuggies with the grey meat and Kraft boxed macaroni and cheese are still ok.

Unless you are disabled, you have to work to get EBT

Okay but the problem here is how many "disabled" people only qualify as such because they're fat fucks who didn't control the beetus, fat fucks who complain "muh back hurts" until they're given a powerchair and fistfuls of Percocet so they'll fuck off, fat fucks who have "depreshun&angziety" "fibromyalgia" or "adult ADHD" plus maybe bad fat lady periods and a B12 deficiency or something... basically, shit that could've been prevented and maybe still can be cured by getting off your ass now and then and a slightly less pig disgusting diet. Reducing the veritable cornucopia of crap available on EBT a little is unlikely to have much impact, but I don't think it can hurt.

Is Fruitopia and Sunny D and all that garbage still covered as "fruit juice?" I wasn't sure and ended up on reddit trying to find out. Ten minutes of trying to sift through fatass redditors crying about their "entitlements" is starting to make it seem like a good idea to scrap the whole program in favor of a new policy where if you're that hungry you can work on a kolkhoz or fuck off.

 

[Skeletonized Cow]

I want them to go further. Just scrap EBT, food stamps, all programs entirely. Give out food aid in kind to people. The purpose of these programs is to ensure people don't starve, not to provide them with an endless supply of slop.

 

[William Murderface]

I've been thinking for a while that SNAP should be more like WIC, that it's a voucher that can only be used for approved items like eggs, flour, potatoes, fresh or frozen produce, milk, and meats. No premade foods, no TV dinners, just the ingredients. You go to the grocery store, have X dollars to spend, and can only buy the staples and go from there. Either that or each county has a centralized location and you have to go there and get your ingredients issued to you once or twice a month.

But big agra would fight that tooth and nail because they would lose sales. I'm sure there would be some form of abuse and fraud somehow, but it would be a start. If you want sweets on my dime, learn to make a pie.

 

[thyme]

choosy beggars. you can still buy bag sugar and fruit on SNAP. make your own candy and juice if youre that much of a slave to sugar.

 

[Captain Ahab]

Isn’t the whole point of the program to improve the nutrition among impoverished people? How does it make sense to allow junk food? Yeah, you can eat crap once in a while and be fine, but it’s not nutritious. It’s a treat. Buy your treats with your own goddamn money.

Nigga, you’re not gonna die if you don’t get a treat. Grow up and stop being a bitch. Muh mentals need sodee pop… Nigga please.

 

[Snekposter]

You'll take pop from our cold dead hands.

Your terms are acceptable.

 

[mold]

work a job so you can get off gov benefits and buy the premium goyslop.

again

only disabled people are getting EBT without a job

EBT has work requirements

 

[AnotherPleb]

Your terms are acceptable.

Molon labe, coastie.

 

[mold]

I've been thinking for a while that SNAP should be more like WIC, that it's a voucher that can only be used for approved items like eggs, flour, potatoes, fresh or frozen produce, milk, and meats. No premade foods, no TV dinners, just the ingredients. You go to the grocery store, have X dollars to spend, and can only buy the staples and go from there. Either that or each county has a centralized location and you have to go there and get your ingredients issued to you once or twice a month.

But big agra would fight that tooth and nail because they would lose sales. I'm sure there would be some form of abuse and fraud somehow, but it would be a start. If you want sweets on my dime, learn to make a pie.

this is why I libertariansperg

if you're going to have gibs, EBT is probably the best possible gibs exactly because the free choice makes it unattractive to corporate gibs seekers.

WIC, on the other hand, exactly because it limited, is endlessly gameable by those corporate gibs seekers and if you are more angry at Shaniqua and Tanqueray buying hot pockets for they keeedz than you are at what I am going to tell you next your emotions are broken and need to be reset, I recommend a monastery retreat.

In 2014 WIC stopped covering fullfat milk for children over 2. This happened in 2014, some years after the demonization of dietary fat had been revealed as terrible garbage science, and at a time where the importance of fat to children's brain development was pretty wellknown. So why would a program intended to assure the country that even poor children receive good nutrition do such a thing?

Because the dairy industry, having invested in stuff to make no/low fat dairy products during the no/low fat fad, didn't see why they should eat the cost of the change in the market. They successfully pressured WIC bureaucrats to pay them to continue to produce products the market doesn't want anymore.

This has a wider impact that is immediately apparent - many supermarkets who cater to WIC now just don't carry fullfat dairy products *at all.*

This is the nastiest example of agribusiness gibs seeking I'm aware of, and also is an unusual federal example, but go look at what WIC covers in your state and you'll see that the driving force is not health but allowing agribusiness to unload what nobody wants.

 

[Dr. Buff Drinklots]

damn LaFawnda won't be able to get diabetic shock

 

[dj0449674]

They're not capable of good judgment which is why they're on these programs in the first place.

 

[draggs]

Your terms are acceptable.

shouldn't be hard considering they'll have a heart attack or stroke out or both the instant they have to exert themselves to stop you from taking their 2 liter of fizzy sugar water

 

[Dog-O-Tron 5000v5.0]

"Iowans should be trusted to make the best food choices for their families," Sheila Hansen, a board member of the Iowa Hunger Coalition and policy advocate and government relations manager for Common Good Iowa, said when the state submitted its waiver request. "Let’s make sure all Iowans have greater access to nutritious food, not punish our low-income neighbors and deny kids a candy bar when they want a treat."

How can someone be so objectively evil? How does this person look at themselves in the mirror?

Just throwing this out, but sugary sludge soda shouldn’t exist because it’s gross.

I agree soda is bad, and I am all for RFK Jr and MAHA. I love what Trump is doing and I have applying a lot of this to my own life in the past year.

That said, I am a believer in personal freedom. Soda and HFCS shouldn't be banned, nor should ultraprocessed foods or candy. They shouldn't be subsidized by the govt and my tax dollars through things like snap and corn subsidies and people should be educated strongly on how bad and addictive they are, like the warning labels on cigarettes.

But if you want to spend your own money to poison yourself, go while hog. Same reason why we should never ban tobacco or liquor. I as an adult choose to consume those things in moderation. If other adults choose to pay for Hot Pockets, Coke and Twinkies, they should have the option--with their own money.

 

[BradeRunna]

Anyone else also realize that this will probably hit the food desert areas niggers constantly bitch about living in? Maybe don’t steal shit from grocery stores, then they won’t have to pack up and leave. THEN you won’t have to take the bus or train to a grocery store 15 minutes away. But no, it was done cuz waycism.

It’s so infuriating thinking the way they do.

It's Iowa. It's 83.1% white. There isn't a whole lot of niggers out there.

 

[Fapcop]

Meh… I can see it from both sides.

On one hand, it’s supposed to be for supplemental nutrition. So Jamal and Shaneequa can get some fresh veggies and shit.

OTOH being poor and getting benefits sucks. A sugar/fat fix is one of the few pleasures in life that they can afford.

 

[Clotso Coof]

Sheila Hansen, a board member of the Iowa Hunger Coalition ... not punish our low-income neighbors and deny kids a candy bar when they want a treat."

You corrupt cunt, why isn't your "non-profit" starting a special treats for poor kids program? What do you actually do?

Why aren't you spending your own money, or your donor's money, to buy those candy bars you're so convinced should be given out for free?

 

[Vic Viper T301]

I've been thinking for a while that SNAP should be more like WIC, that it's a voucher that can only be used for approved items like eggs, flour, potatoes, fresh or frozen produce, milk, and meats. No premade foods, no TV dinners, just the ingredients. You go to the grocery store, have X dollars to spend, and can only buy the staples and go from there. Either that or each county has a centralized location and you have to go there and get your ingredients issued to you once or twice a month.

But big agra would fight that tooth and nail because they would lose sales. I'm sure there would be some form of abuse and fraud somehow, but it would be a start. If you want sweets on my dime, learn to make a pie.

I remember working at a grocery store in high school and the WIC people were the worst. Every time they would try to buy something that wasn't accepted on the program and start an argument when the system wouldn't let me apply it. Then my boss would have to come over and explain what I just explained to them. Then they'd have to go back into the store and get something complaint instead. Fucking headache every time.

 

[William Murderface]

I remember working at a grocery store in high school and the WIC people were the worst. Every time they would try to buy something that wasn't accepted on the program and start an argument when the system wouldn't let me apply it. Then my boss would have to come over and explain what I just explained to them. Then they'd have to go back into the store and get something complaint instead. Fucking headache every time.

I remember doing WIC too. They wanted Sugar Frosted Choco Bombs for their kids when the voucher specifically called for something like Kix or Rice Crispies or something. Juicy Juice or something and not Coke. Drove me nuts. We gave chance back for food stamps, so they would come in and use a single dollar value food stamp and buy a 5 cent jawbreaker and get 95 cents back in change, do it two or three times and then use the change to buy a six pack of beer or a carton of smokes. The worst though were the people who would come in and buy racks of ribs and chickens and briskets with their food stamps and then sell the meat to the BBQ joint next door for 50 cents on the dollar. I hated seeing it.

 

[Bulk Bogan]

Biting into an orange quarter on a hot day did something to my brain, to where the orange taste is one of God's gifts. Don't get me wrong, there are other things I like to; but sometimes, I'll get the orange flavor and it's like static electricity to my brain.

I was lucky enough to have an orange tree in my back yard as a kid, so whenever I wanted something sweet my parents would tell me to go out back and pick some oranges, when in season. We'd juice'em with one of those old juicing machines, eat the quarters, real family bonding moments, and that was less sugar crap my parents had to buy too.