A few weeks ago I had the privilege of attending the Consumer Federation of America’s National Food Policy Conference with Dr. Barbara Kowalcyk and Dr. Gabby Headrick from the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security. It was terrific to listen to panels full of knowledgeable speakers and to network with experts across the food policy space. The last panel, on the hot topic of SNAP waivers, left me with a question that I felt compelled to research.
SNAP Food Restriction Waivers can be requested by a state, and once approved by the USDA, they allow for restrictions on foods that can be purchased with SNAP benefits. While restricted products vary by state, the primary items are those high in sugar, such as candy and soda. The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement has strongly advocated for SNAP waivers and these waivers have become a heated topic of debate in the news, as well as in the conference panel. Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, Director of the Food is Medicine Institute, claimed that SNAP doesn’t produce benefits for nutrition security, but rather for food security. I was confused, as I had always believed that those who received SNAP benefits tended to eat more nutritious foods, since SNAP encourages these purchases. Dr. Mozaffarian’s comment caught me so off guard that I wrote it down in my notes and put three question marks in the margin next to it, to remind myself to research it later. While I found research articles that seemed to corroborate his claim, others disputed it, and there were even some that suggested there were only negligible differences in the association between adequate nutrient intake and use of SNAP benefits.
The last moments of the panel focused on policy recommendations to improve the nutrient intake of those on SNAP. Jerold Mande, CEO of Nourish Science, recommended that stores seeking SNAP certification remove soda and other sugary products from their endcaps, a recommendation supported by the other panelists. Stephanie Johnson, Group Vice President of the National Grocers Association, proposed expanding SNAP incentives to provide a greater return on purchases of fruits and vegetables, a suggestion also endorsed by the panel.
As someone who aspires to work in food policy, I am grateful for the insights shared by these panelists and learned a lot from their discussion. This panel challenged my assumption that SNAP improves diet quality and highlighted the need for policy approaches that address both food access and nutrition. Since this was my first time attending a conference, I especially appreciated the professional and respectful exchange of ideas. There has been some division in the food policy space these last few years, and it can be easy to dismiss those with differing perspectives. However, these panelists demonstrated what productive conversation looks like among professionals, and reinforced that nutrition security is a bipartisan issue, with everyone in that room united by a common goal: ensuring that all people in our country have safe and affordable access to nutritious food.