Arkansas approved to ban SNAP recipients from using benefits for soda, candy

Above: USDA Sec. Brooke Rollins (left) stands next to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders as she announces Arkansas’ request to exclude soda and candy from SNAP benefits on April 15, 2025. (Ainsley Platt/Arkansas Advocate)

The new restrictions will go into effect in July 2026

By Ainsley Platt, Arkansas Advocate

Candy and sodas are coming off the menu for SNAP recipients in Arkansas, and rotisserie chickens are taking their place.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins officially approved a waiver to allow Arkansas to ban its SNAP recipients from using their benefits to purchase certain types of food on Tuesday. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders made the waiver request to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, when Rollins visited Little Rock in April.

The waiver will take effect July 1, 2026.

Sanders specifically asked the federal government to allow Arkansas to restrict SNAP participants from purchasing certain types of food and drink deemed unhealthy with their benefits, such as soda, juices with less than 50% natural juice and other “unhealthy drinks,” along with “confectionary products with flour and artificially sweetened candy.”

In their place, Sanders requested that Arkansas SNAP recipients be allowed to purchase rotisserie chickens with their food benefits.

In an emailed press release Tuesday, Sanders said the approval “sends a clear message” that Arkansas stands with the Trump administration to tackle the “chronic disease epidemic” in the U.S.

“Arkansas leads the nation in getting unhealthy, ultra-processed foods off food stamps and helping our most vulnerable citizens lead healthier lives,” Sanders said.

The exclusion of soda and candy would not decrease overall SNAP benefits received by beneficiaries, Sanders said during Rollins’ April visit, but would rather free up more of their benefits for healthier foods.

Arkansas was one of the first states to request the junk food waiver. Nebraska was the first to receive approval on May 20.

In a Monday night press release, the USDA said Rollins would host U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Indiana Gov. Mike Braun and Sanders for “a discussion about President [Donald] Trump’s government wide effort to Make America Healthy Again.”

“America’s governors have proudly answered the call to innovate by improving nutrition programs, ensuring better choices while respecting the generosity of the American taxpayer,” the Sanders release quoted Rollins as saying.

Since aligning himself with President Donald Trump last year after a failed presidential campaign, Kennedy has continued his criticisms of companies and foods he says contribute to Americans’ poor health. It spawned the broader MAHA movement among conservatives, with GOP governors such as Sanders repeating Kennedy’s warnings of a “chronic disease epidemic” caused by food dyes and ultraprocessed foods.

Sanders’ waiver request was made as Arkansas legislators considered — and ultimately approved — legislation that requires the Arkansas Department of Human Services, which oversees SNAP in the state, to apply for a junk food waiver over the objections of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, who said the requirement was a “slippery slope in terms of debating what foods are healthy or not.”

A better way to address poor health outcomes would be to address root causes such as poverty and access to medical care, Christin Harper, AACF’s policy director told legislators in April.

The food industry pushed back on Sanders’ assertions that their products were driving a health crisis in April, with the National Confectioners Association calling the waiver “misguided.” The NCA argued then that the “candy purchasing patterns” of those who received SNAP benefits and those who didn’t were “basically equivalent.”

The American Beverage Association also pushed back on the arguments Sanders made in April, saying at the time that granting the waiver “won’t make one ounce of difference on health.”

The waiver decision comes after the USDA backed down on a demand to states that they provide a variety of personally-identifiable information on SNAP beneficiaries while lawsuits played out.

The Arkansas Advocate is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to tough, fair daily reporting and investigative journalism that holds public officials accountable and focuses on the relationship between the lives of Arkansans and public policy.