For the record, the great state of Oklahoma has a population of more than four million people.
Of that figure, roughly 700,000 - close to 18% of the entire population - don’t get enough to eat and are forced to rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to put food on their table. That program, part of the federal government’s largest anti- hunger initiative, provides food assistance to low-income individuals and families - everyone from seniors to people with disabilities and working families.
The goal is simple: help them buy food. This program effectively replaced the older “food stamps” program.
But beginning this year, the program is changing.
In February, the government’s new SNAP regulations will go into effect. Those regulations add new restrictions on what the poorest of our state can and can’t purchase with their SNAP benefit card.
“It’s about 18,000 items, and that will likely expand,” Chris Bernard of Hunger Free Oklahoma recently told an Oklahoma City television station.
The restrictions, he said, followed a meeting between state officials and U.S. Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy. Bernard said the result of the meeting wasn’t good. “This is just an opportunity to say you’re doing something while you’re just stigmatizing a group for choices that everybody in America makes,” Bernard said.
And here in Oklahoma, despite the ever-increasing number of poor residents, we now have one of the strictest SNAP programs in the country.
For example, candy and soft drinks have been eliminated. They can no longer be purchased with a SNAP card.
Candy includes candy bars or any products with wafers, cookies, or flour components when they are primarily sold as candy. Candy also includes non-bakery items that are dipped, coated, or covered in chocolate, yogurt, or other candy coating, such as chocolate-covered raisins, almonds, or similar products. This definition also applies to equivalent items, including private-label or store-brand products, that retailers categorize or market as candy.
Candy does not include baked goods such as cakes, cookies, muffins, brownies, pastries, or bread or Items primarily sold as baking ingredients, such as chocolate chips, baking chocolate, or cocoa powder.
The list of restricted soft drinks is long, too.
According to the feds, any beverage marketed or sold as a soda, soft drink, sports drink, energy drink, flavored water or juice drink containing less than 100% juice. This includes colas, sodas, teas, punches, lemonades, sports or energy beverages, flavored waters, and fruit drinks that are not 100% juice.
And even though several states have already gone on record, seeking waivers from the new regulations, Oklahoma isn’t one of them.
While I understand the state’s efforts to make sure funding for food is spent properly, I believe the new regulations are heavy-handed and punitive. They marginalize the poorest of our population.
Instead of regulating whether a SNAP recipient can purchase a soda, maybe state and federal officials should do more to develop programs that reduce the number of residents living in poverty.
It’s time to get serious about helping the 700,000 in this state who are struggling.
M. Scott Carter is an award-winning political and investigative reporter with more than 40years’ experience covering federal and state government and politics in Oklahoma. He can be reached at scott.carter@swoknews.com