The Tennessee House of Representatives passed a bill on Monday that would prohibit the purchase of soft drinks and candy with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
The Tennessee Health SNAP Act, filed as HB 1236/SB 1154, is being sponsored by State Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) and State Senator Rusty Crowe (R-Johnson City).
Tennessee is leading the way aligning public policy with public health.
We passed my bill on the House floor to prohibit soda and candy from SNAP.
Now up the Senate. #MAHA pic.twitter.com/lLUfjnt00Q— Rep. Jason Zachary (@JasonZacharyTN) March 10, 2025
The bill, which passed the House by a 69-23 vote, would require the Tennessee Department of Human Services to submit a request for a waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food and nutrition service to seek authorization to prohibit the use of SNAP benefits for the purchase of candy and soft drinks.
In the case the U.S. Department of Agriculture approves the waiver, the Department of Human Services then must implement the restrictions on candy and soft drinks from SNAP benefits within one year of receiving federal authorization.
With approval from the House, the bill awaits further action by the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.
In fiscal year 2024, 711,200 residents, or approximately 10 percent, of Tennessee’s population benefited from SNAP.
A 2016 report published by the Department of Agriculture showed that “sweetened beverages” and “prepared desserts” were the second- and fifth-most purchased types of items by SNAP recipients at the time.
Tennessee lawmakers’ push to disqualify soft drinks and candy from SNAP benefits comes as U.S. Health and Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins are leading the push at the national level to prohibit soda and processed foods from being eligible for purchase under SNAP.
“The one place that I would say that we really need to change policies is food stamps and school lunches…We shouldn’t be subsidizing people to eat poison,” Kennedy said in an interview on Fox News last month.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Let’s hope that they will compensate this with giving families the opportunity to buy more whole foods and encourage healthier options.
Going back in time, this is something that should be done. It NEVER should have been changed. Our family had a store and you could not take (food stamps) for many type of things that people today call food. No beer, candy, junk food was allowed to be paid for with public money. Today, it is on a debit/credit card, and you can buy almost anything with it. This whole program was started in the name of keeping people from going hungry. Today it is just another give-a-way to buy votes.
Being a person who worked in a grocery store here in TN for a short time, it was beyond appalling the items (I wouldn’t even classify as real food) that people were allowed to purchase with government welfare. the store manager would warn us on the day that people’s EBT cards were reloaded. Once a woman who was not born in America came in and purchased a whole shopping cart full of meat. She was obviously going to sell it to her friends and get cash. Welcome to America.
I do not understand why such items were included in SNAP benefits in the first place. I suppose it was from strong lobbying from the producers. Now how about eliminating all snack foods and concentrate on basic staples like it was supposed to be in the first place?