Indiana Gov. Mike Braun on Friday announced that the Trump administration has approved his request to ban SNAP benefits, commonly called food stamps, from being used to buy sugary pop and candy. But a local township trustee says recipients don’t use the benefit much for that anyway.
As part of his “Make Indiana Healthy Again” initiative, Braun on Friday announced that Indiana has won a federal waiver banning pop and candy purchases with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. Braun released a statement saying that SNAP users’ purchases of sugary drinks, desserts, and candy exceed the combined sales of fruits and vegetables, and that children enrolled in SNAP consume 43% more sugary drinks than non-SNAP recipients with similar incomes.
But that doesn’t seem to be the case in South Bend, says Democratic Portage Township Trustee Jason Critchlow. Critchlow says when township residents apply for help with paying rent or utility bills, they must document how they’ve spent their money, so he’s seen hundreds of grocery receipts.
"And never once can I say that it popped out at me that they were spending an exorbitant amount of money on sugary drinks and candy," Critchlow says. "What they're spending an exorbitant amount of money on is basic essentials like cereal and rice and milk and eggs and beef and diapers and formula."
Critchlow says if Republican state and federal leaders really want people at lower incomes to eat better, they’ll do something to increase wages and lower housing costs so people can afford better food.
"Instead they do something like this which, all this is designed to do is fool people into thinking that they're actually doing something because it sounds good, when in actuality it's doing nothing to address any actual problem."
