Morrisey submits request to remove soda from food stamps
Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced last week his administration’s plan to see soda exempted from food stamp purchases. If approved, it could have consequences for area businesses.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced Tuesday, May 20 that his administration is seeking to limit the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funds, commonly referred to as food stamps, for purchasing soda.
The United States Department of Agriculture facilitates the program designed to provide monthly benefits to low-income individuals and families. States can submit applications to the agency for variances in what can or cannot be purchased with food stamps.
Last week, Nebraska became the first state to receive a federal waiver banning soda from food stamps. “SNAP is about helping families in need get healthy food into their diets, but there’s nothing nutritious about the junk we’re removing with today’s waiver,” said Jim Pillen, Governor of Nebraska.
Iowa and Indiana have also been granted waivers, with Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Texas and West Virginia officially seeking the same.
The move by the state’s governor comes as his administration promotes the “Make America Healthy Again (MAHA)” movement as touted by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Morrisey has defined “Four Pillars of a Healthy West Virginia” as (1) clean up the food, (2) find purpose, find health, (3) move your body, change your life, and (4) reward healthy choices.
To further these goals, the governor signed House Bill 2354 into law earlier this year which prohibits certain food dyes from being produced or sold in the state. Morrisey has also expressed support for work requirements for food stamp recipients and launched a statewide initiative encouraging residents to walk a mile each day.
Now, Morrisey is seeking to ban soda from food stamps.
While some have applauded the move by the Morrisey administration, others, like the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy (WVCBP), have warned of far-reaching consequences if the state is granted a waiver.
Seth DiStefano, Policy Outreach Director for WVCBP, told Wheeling Free Press the waiver could spell “economic damage” to border counties, like the northern panhandle, where food stamp recipients can simply drive across state lines to do their shopping.
“In any given month in Hancock, Brooke and Ohio County, there’s just under $2.2 million in federal food assistance dispersed,” DiStefano said. “That money — by and large — gets spent locally. If you start trying to tell folks that they can’t buy this thing or that thing, it’s not going to be long before those who have the option will simply drive a few extra minutes and do their shopping.”
The state’s northern panhandle is a narrow enclave sandwiched between the state of Ohio and the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. While the area’s eastern border is more rural, the western border sees river towns like Bellaire, Bridgeport, Martins Ferry and Steubenville, among others, line the Ohio River.
For many in Wheeling, the difference in travelling to the Kroger in Martins Ferry or Reisebeck’s, a local grocery chain, in Bridgeport is negligible compared to the drive to Wheeling’s own Kroger. DiStefano believes some food stamp recipients will simply drive that extra mile or so to complete their entire shopping list rather than skipping on the soda in West Virginia.
“You’re not going to see a scenario where folks are like, ‘well, I’ll buy all my groceries at the local shopping place in Wheeling and get my soda across the border,’” DiStefano said. “What they’re going to do is they’re going to take all of that food assistance and go somewhere else.”
The loss of revenue from food stamp recipients shopping in Ohio or Pennsylvania could be disastrous for already struggling local West Virginia businesses, DiStefano says.
Other than the economic impact, DiStefano says the change would hurt poor and working-class West Virginians and decrease free market ideals.
“There are 12,000 veterans in West Virginia who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” DiStefano said. “If one of them wants a Cherry Coke and all they have are a couple of dollars on their SNAP card, who are we to tell them that they can’t?”
Waivers amid broader SNAP cuts…
The Morrisey administration’s request to exempt soda from food stamps comes as the program faces the largest cuts to its budget in history.
The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” narrowly passed by House Republicans last week takes aim at SNAP, among other programs, in an attempt to pay for the bill’s broad tax cuts benefitting the country’s wealthiest taxpayers.
If passed into law, the bill would see $267 billion cut from SNAP over the next 10 years and implement work requirements for the 42 million Americans who rely on the program. As well, it would see parents of children over the age of 7 be required to meet work requirements.
The bill seeks to push the burden of paying for food stamps onto states; and, for West Virginia — a state with the nation’s third highest rate of SNAP recipients, 18.2% of the population, and shrinking tax base — that burden may go unfulfilled.
“There is zero chance that the current makeup of the governor’s mansion will step in and fill that gap, to be honest,” DiStefano said of West Virginia increasing its budget for food stamps. “I will give Gov. Morrisey a little credit in so much as he has been honest about upcoming deficits. We simply will not have the money to try and make up what the federal government takes away from us [in SNAP funding].”
Morrisey has claimed that the state faces a severe budget shortfall in the coming fiscal year, pinning the total at roughly $400 million. The governor used his line-item veto power last month to cut out specific parts of the budget adopted by the Legislature citing upcoming deficits.
With the potential major federal cuts to food stamps and the governor’s application to ban soda from the program, West Virginia citizens and businesses who rely on the program may struggle in the coming years.