Wyomingites signed up for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program could see changes to which food and drink they can purchase with their benefits.
Gov. Mark Gordon announced on Monday that the state submitted a SNAP Food Restriction Demonstration Waiver to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service. The waiver would exclude certain foods and beverages from purchase with SNAP benefits.
In the news release, the governor’s office notes that the waiver marks “a significant step toward strengthening nutrition outcomes for Wyoming families.” In September, approximately 100 Johnson County residents received SNAP benefits. The average SNAP payment is roughly $185 per month per person.
“The waiver we submitted to USDA is about encouraging healthier choices, not micromanaging people’s lives,” Gordon said in a statement. “My executive order targeted products with no nutritional value while preserving dignity and personal responsibility, something Wyoming citizens feel strongly about. I believe going any further and outlawing staples like flour or sugar, ingredients families use to bake bread or cook meals at home, risks undermining the very families SNAP is meant to support.”
The waiver as submitted to the federal government proposes “a phased approach” to limiting the purchase of non-nutritive items with SNAP benefits. Sweetened, carbonated beverages would be excluded from purchase in the first year, followed by candy in the second year, the news release says.
Gordon issued an executive order on Oct. 31 that prompted the Wyoming Department of Family Services to begin the process of applying for a waiver. Gordon’s executive order is in line with President Donald Trump’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. Under a Trump executive order, states can apply for waivers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers SNAP, to exclude certain food items from the federal program.
Gordon’s executive order notes that food items such as sweetened beverages and candy contain high fructose corn syrup or sugar that provides no nutritional value, and that poor diets can lead to health problems and chronic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
The order cites a statistic from the American Diabetes Association that estimates more than 30% of Wyoming adults are considered obese, and 9.5% of Wyoming adults live with diabetes.
“These figures underscore a clear and pressing need within the state to promote and facilitate the adoption of healthy and nutritious dietary practices among its citizens to mitigate the escalating health burden associated with these preventable conditions,” the order says.
The challenge of restricting certain food items is the possibility of errors at the retail level, the order acknowledges. The USDA calculates the error rate of each state’s SNAP implementation, and a higher error rate can shift a portion of the cost of the program’s administration from the federal government to the state. Still, the order notes that the Wyoming Department of Family Services, which administers the program in Wyoming, has “one of the lowest error rates in the nation.”
When Gordon and DFS Director Korin Schmidt announced that the state would apply for the waiver on Oct. 31, Schmidt noted that the department will consider that Wyoming’s rural nature means some communities’ access to nutritious food is limited.
“We also want to recognize the balance that we have in our very frontier nature of the state and access to grocery stores, access to convenience stores is a big part of food in our state, and we want to balance that understanding with what types of foods and/or drink should be restricted,” she said during an Oct. 31 press conference.
Gordon’s news release notes that the proposal was developed using feedback from the public in direct consultation with retailers, beverage distributors and SNAP-Ed providers, surveys and public town halls. The phased rollout will give retailers time to implement new coding and give communities time to adapt, the release says.
“This effort is about aligning SNAP with its core purpose, supporting health and nutrition for families who need help putting food on the table,” Schmidt said in a statement. “Wyoming approached this thoughtfully, deliberately, and with extensive public input. We are focused on improving outcomes, not adding bureaucracy.”
A bill was also introduced in the Wyoming Legislature this session that, if passed, would have required the Department of Family Services to request a waiver. House Bill 7 failed introduction, 37-25, following Gordon’s announcement.
Rep. Marilyn Connolly, R-Buffalo, said during a town hall meeting on Jan. 23 that childhood hunger is a prevalent issue in Wyoming and that she is concerned about unintended consequences of the SNAP bill as written. She voted nay on the bill’s introduction on the first day of the session.
“I thought, well, not a big deal if they can’t have candy and pop, but it would be nice if they could at least buy some trail mix or salt and pepper, ketchup and mustard,” Connolly said. “Because if that bill goes through the way it’s written, that’s what’s going to happen.”
A conversation with a constituent about the program made her think about it further, she said.
“She said to me, ‘Some of the kids even in our county, the best thing that ever happens to them in a day is they might get to eat a candy bar,’” Connolly said. “I didn’t think about it, because I didn’t grow up that way.”
