In the state of Tennessee alone, over a million people rely on benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to survive another meal. Now, a proposed change in the system seeks to stop beneficiaries from accessing foods high in sugar, fat and calories using their food stamps.
Republican Columbia representative Sheila Butt filed a bill Thursday to prohibit low-income families from using their food stamps to buy such junk food items, which can include candy, ice cream and other sweets. The state, according to the law, would be able to seek a waiver to create a prohibited food item list with the help of the agriculture department.
No More Funding ‘Unhealthy Choices’
Should the bill pass legislation, violators would be fined $1,000 for their first offense, $2,500 for their second one and up to $5,000 for a third or more offense within five years.
“When you’re receiving taxpayer dollars, it’s not money that you’ve have earned,” said Butt in a release published on her website. “It’s money that other people have earned and is redistributed to you.”
Citing diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and obesity especially in high-risk communities, the representative reminded: “Strings come along with that.”
In food stamp recipients, taxpayers are actually “subsidizing unhealthy lifestyle choices,” Butt added.
In November alone, over $134 million in food benefits was provided to over a million recipients around the state, according to official data.
Punishing Low-Income Families?
Some locals agreed with the proposed measure. In an interview with News Channel 9, Alan Rogers said the focus should be on sustenance, while “all this other stuff is extra stuff.”
However, Memphis nonprofit RISE Foundation said the bill punishes low-income families for something that education should be addressing.
Its president and CEO Linda Williams, working for the Department of Human Services for over three decades, pointed to the availability of healthy foods and access to them as a bigger issue. It’s an educational issue, Williams said.
Once it becomes a law, the rule will take effect in July this year.
Tennessee as a southeastern state is part of rural American states with the highest number of deaths from the top potentially preventable causes. The study recently released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that those who lived in rural areas had a higher risk of dying from the five leading reasons compared with people who were in urban locations, partly due to higher poverty rates, less access to health care and less likelihood of having health insurance.
Interestingly, a recent study from a team out of the University of Minnesota and Duke University showed that processed foods remain a popular choice among families not just out of convenience or the lack of time, energy and skills devoted for preparing meals.
Fifty-seven percent or the majority of survey participants cited time savings as their reason for buying frozen dinners, but 49 percent or almost half also reported that they buy ready-to-eat meals because their families truly liked them.
