TAMPA, Fla. — According to the USDA, about three million Floridians rely on SNAP benefits to put food on the table.
Starting Monday, there are new restrictions on what people can use SNAP benefits for, namely, limiting the purchase of what’s considered unhealthy foods.
WATCH: SNAP benefits are changing for Floridians on Monday
Now EBT cardholders will no longer be able to use SNAP benefits to purchase soda, energy drinks, candy, and ultra-processed prepared desserts.
Back in August, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, signed a waiver for some states, including Florida, to allow for these changes.
Since then, a notice was issued to retailers letting them know they can no longer accept SNAP EBT payments for those items, starting today.
This is part of the Make America Healthy Again initiative, and Florida has now joined the list of states participating in these restrictions.
Critics of this move believe this is an overstep.
There are also concerns about communities that have limited access to healthy food.
For a lot of people, it’s not that they don’t want to eat healthy, but rather that healthy food is hard to come by.
The state said it made this change to better align SNAP with its intended purpose of providing low-income households access to more nutritious diets and help ensure the benefits are used for more nourishing foods.
For now, this change is expected to last through the end of 2027.
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