Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders unveiled a plan to limit the sorts of food that may be purchased with food stamps, making her one of the first governors to request federal authority to remove products such as soda and candy from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme (SNAP).
Sanders announced at a news conference at the Arkansas Capitol on Tuesday that her administration had submitted a waiver request to the USDA that would prohibit the use of SNAP benefits for soft drinks, artificially sweetened candy, and flour-based snacks, while expanding eligible items to include hot rotisserie chicken, which is currently excluded.
“Right now you can use food stamps to buy a soft drink or a candy bar from a gas station, but you can’t use them to buy an Arkansas-raised hot rotisserie chicken from a grocery store,” Sanders said. “That’s the definition of crazy.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins praised Sanders’ move.
“Gov. Sanders is confronting childhood disease head on, and it starts with what families consume,” according to Rollins. “Today’s waiver announcement is welcome, and I’m looking forward to going through the clearance process quickly. I encourage more states to follow Arkansas’s bold lead as we work to make America healthy again.”
The waiver request is part of the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) strategy, which aims to reduce chronic disease and healthcare costs by revamping federal nutrition programmes.
“We finally have a president who, along with Secretary Rollins, has put a laser focus on solving America’s chronic disease epidemic,” Sanders told reporters. “Reforming food stamps is a great place to start.”
Trump’s second administration is focusing on food and health policies, with a shift towards state-led solutions that prioritise prevention over treatment. Rollins and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who both spoke at a similar SNAP reform announcement in Indiana on Tuesday, are among those leading the MAHA programme.
Rollins commended Arkansas’ leadership during his speech there.
“What we are doing here today is affirming the value of federalism in all aspects of governance,” according to her. “No federal bureaucrat can understand the needs of Arkansas families better than their own governor.”
Rollins noted that SNAP reform was a priority for Trump.
“This is one of the things he campaigned on, and this is what the American people voted for,” she told me.
Sanders claimed that the programme, which was originally created to combat hunger, has been perverted by antiquated restrictions and improper incentives.
“One third of our state has diabetes or is prediabetic,” according to her. “We’re paying for it on the front end and the back end.”
If authorised, the waiver would apply to almost 350,000 Arkansas SNAP recipients and would go into effect in July 2026.
According to Sanders, 23% of SNAP expenditure, or $27 billion per year, goes towards soft drinks, sweets, and desserts, whereas the state spends $300 million each year on Medicaid to address chronic illnesses.
“This is not about taking anything away,” she told me. “It’s simply saying that taxpayers are no longer going to cover the cost of junk food like candy and soft drinks.”
Rollins applauded Arkansas’ SNAP reform plan as a big move towards improving public health, calling Sanders “courageous” for targeting children sickness through nutrition.
“We are working to realign USDA and every taxpayer dollar around what is the best and most effective spend,” Rollins told the press.
Arkansas Department of Human Services Secretary Kristi Putnam stated that the same state agency that oversees SNAP also handles Medicaid.
“In one programme, we subsidised items that are known to be unhealthy. In the other, we’re allocating large resources to treating the same diseases caused by bad food,” she explained. “This makes no sense.”
Critics, notably the Food Research and Action Centre, believe that the limitations are punitive and unsupported by data. Trade associations representing beverage and confectionary producers have also criticised the proposal.
According to The Associated Press, American Beverage accused officials of “choosing to be the food police,” while the National Confectioners Association described the strategy as “misguided.”
Sanders addressed worries about food prices, highlighting her administration’s efforts to repeal the state grocery tax.
“I think you’d be hard-pressed to say that you’re gonna be better off having purchased a pack of Skittles and that your hunger is gonna be satisfied after that purchase,” she told me.
Rollins emphasised that SNAP funding levels would not change. “It just opens up the opportunity to buy better and more healthy food moving forward,” she told me.
The Arkansas waiver request was formally submitted on Tuesday, and it includes a 30-day public comment period. The USDA and the governor’s office are slated to start coordinating on implementation specifics this week.
“We’re hoping that this is completed very quickly,” Sanders remarked.
