Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to make America healthy, but voters don’t want anyone telling them they can’t buy soda or other sweetened beverages through the taxpayer-funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, provides food benefits to low-income families to supplement their grocery budget. The federal program administered by states served an average of 42.1 million participants per month in fiscal year 2023 with total spending of $112.8 billion and average benefits of $211.93 per participant per month, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
SNAP users are already limited in what they can buy through the program. For example, they can’t buy pet food, cigarettes or alcohol.
Kennedy has previously said he wants to add soda, other sugary beverages and processed foods to that list.
“Stop allowing beneficiaries of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to use their food stamps to buy soda or processed foods. Nine percent of all SNAP funding goes to sweetened drinks, according to 2011 data,” Kennedy wrote in a 2024 Wall Street Journal op-ed. “It’s nonsensical for U.S. taxpayers to spend tens of billions of dollars subsidizing junk that harms the health of low-income Americans.”
He’s not alone. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins wants the same thing. Changing the program would require Congress to change federal laws for the program, which is administered by states.
Voters aren’t on board, according to a recent poll from American Beverage Association, a trade group that represents America’s non-alcoholic beverage industry.
A national survey of 808 adults conducted by Public Opinion Strategies found that 64% of all adults think soft drinks and sugar-sweetened beverages should be allowed in the SNAP program while 36% were opposed.
The survey asked: “Thinking about the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program also known as food stamps … Do you think people receiving food stamps should or should not be allowed to purchase soft drinks and sugar-sweetened beverages with food stamps?”
Among Trump voters, the preference was still in favor of soft drinks with 58% for and 42% against. For voters without a college education, support jumped to 71% in favor compared with 29% against. For Black voters, support hit 85% in favor compared with 15% opposed.
The survey, conducted Dec. 12-17, 2024, had a credibility interval of +3.93%.
