Arkansas defies federal court to launch SNAP candy-and-soda ban Wednesday

Arkansas is moving forward with its plan to ban government food aid from being used to buy candy and soda beginning on Wednesday, even though a federal judge ruled last week that similar restrictions in other states violated federal law.

Announcing the plan on Monday, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited an urgent need to combat a “chronic disease epidemic” in America, including high rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

On one floor of the state’s Department of Human Services, “our state has been approving food stamp purchases for soft drinks and candy, while on another floor, our state’s Medicaid program is paying to treat the chronic diseases those products can help create,” she said.

Food stamps is an older name for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The federally funded and state-run program provides a monthly stipend for low-income families to buy groceries. It is used by nearly 42 million Americans, or about one in eight.

In a news release, the Arkansas governor’s office cited Stanford University research that found restricting the purchase of sugary drinks with food stamps........

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