April 14, 2026
There are in the United States about 80 means-tested welfare programs that limit benefits or payments on the basis of the beneficiary's income or assets.
Some of these programs provide medical care, like Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Some of them provide cash payments, like Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), refundable tax credits, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Some of them relate to education, like Head Start and Pell grants. Some of them provide subsidies, like Section 8 housing vouchers and farm subsidies. But a great many of these welfare programs relate to food.
The Food and Nutrition Service ( FNS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture ( USDA) administers many food programs:
- The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
- The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
- The School Breakfast Program (SBP)
- The Special Milk Program (SMP)
- The National School Lunch Program (NSLP)
- The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP)
- The Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP)
- The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)
- The Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP)
The largest and costliest of these programs is SNAP, formerly and more popularly known as food stamps. Although it is a federal program, it is administered by the states.
Monthly SNAP benefits are based on a family's size and income. Benefits are provided via an electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card. Food stamps can be used to purchase all manner of foods; food stamps cannot be used to purchase prepared hot food, vitamins, alcoholic beverages, or non-food items like tobacco products, soap, paper products, medication, and cleaning supplies.
The "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" that was signed into law by President Trump on July 4th of last year boosts the states' share of food-stamp funding, raises the age at which adults are exempted from food stamp work requirements to 65, removes exceptions for homeless individuals, veterans, and those 24 and younger who aged out of foster care, and makes it harder for those in the country illegally to receive food stamps.
But additionally, according to the FNS:
USDA is empowering states with greater flexibility to manage their programs by approving SNAP Food Restriction Waivers that restrict the purchase of non-nutritious items like soda and candy. These waivers are a key step in ensuring that taxpayer dollars provide nutritious options that improve health outcomes within SNAP.
For many years, there were no restrictions on the types of food that could be purchased with food stamps. But now, 18 states have been granted waivers to restrict the purchase of soft drinks, energy drinks, candy, and prepared desserts with food stamps.
This has angered some SNAP recipients. So much so that they are biting the hand of Uncle Sam that feeds them. Five SNAP recipients-from Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and West Virginia-recently sued the USDA for implementing its waiver restriction pilot projects. They are represented by the National Center for Law and Economic Justice ( NCLEJ).
According to the lawsuit: "The food restriction waivers contain no exceptions for individual medical, nutritional, or household circumstances. Instead, the food restriction waivers place on recipients and retailers the responsibility for determining whether a particular product is a permissible SNAP purchase under each state's altered definition of 'food'." Plaintiffs are seeking the pilot programs to be declared unlawful, to delay the implementation of any approved waivers, and to block any waivers that have not yet gone into effect.
The lawsuit should be dismissed immediately.
Because food stamps are welfare, because no American is entitled to receive welfare benefits no matter how much he "needs" them, because the Constitution nowhere authorizes the federal government to institute welfare programs or give the states block grants to operate welfare programs, because it is not a legitimate purpose of government at any level to fund or operate welfare programs to fight poverty or feed anyone, because it is immoral for government to take money from some Americans to give it to other Americans in the form of cash, food, or EBT cards, anything done by the federal or state governments to reduce the number of welfare recipients, reduce the amount of welfare benefits, or reduce the time period that welfare benefits can be received is a good thing. This is true whether it is work requirements, age restrictions, means tests, income tests, drug tests, asset tests, or food restrictions.
The more food and drinks declared off limits for purchase with food stamps the better, and the more states that are granted waivers the better. All charity should be private and voluntary.