Feds approve West Virginia’s SNAP waiver
Bottles of Mexican Coca-Cola are displayed at a grocery store in Mount Prospect, Ill., Thursday, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
CHARLESTON — Federal officials have officially signed off on West Virginia’s request to end subsidies for sugary drinks for the program formerly known as food stamps. Gov. Patrick Morrisey joined U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Monday afternoon at the USDA Whitten Building in Washington, D.C., for the signing of West Virginia’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) waiver. “There’s no way around it when it comes to West Virginia. Unfortunately, we’re ranked at or near the bottom of a lot of the tough public health metrics,” Morrisey said. “Now, that’s the bad news, and I believe in telling the truth to the American people about where we are, because that’s going to make the rise all the more better when West Virginia is able to reach her potential and to get healthy again. The good news today is that we all have the power to change it.” West Virginia was one of six states that had its SNAP waivers approved Monday by Rollins. Other states receiving waivers were Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, and Colorado. “I continue to encourage states to be laboratories of innovation and think through how you can promote healthy families and healthy communities,” Rollins said. “These SNAP waivers are just one piece of this effort.” Morrisey submitted a formal waiver request to the USDA in May to remove soda as a food product that can be purchased on SNAP, the program that replaced food stamps. The waiver request asked the USDA to allow the state to remove regular soda, diet soda and sugar-free soda from the list of eligible items that can be purchased using SNAP benefits. “I’m always fond of saying that the ‘N’ in SNAP stands for nutrition, but unfortunately, over a long period of time, that wasn’t always the case,” Morrisey said. “So, I’m happy now that in West Virginia, taxpayers are not going to be subsidizing soda and these sugary drinks.” In addition to the request to ban soda purchases, Morrisey sought approval from the USDA to allow the use of SNAP benefits to purchase certain hot foods found for sale in grocery stores, such as rotisserie chicken, lasagna, meatloaf, barbecue ribs and steamed vegetables. According to the waiver request, there are 146,458 households and 273,981 individual recipients receiving SNAP benefits in West Virginia. Morrisey’s focus on SNAP is part of his “Four Pillars of a Healthy West Virginia.” Those pillars include a ban on food dyes and additives with the passage of House Bill 2354 during this year’s legislative session, increasing access to affordable healthy food choices for West Virginians and the Mountaineer Mile challenge with Mountain Mile Trails being designated in 32 of West Virginia’s state parks. Morrisey first announced his Four Pillars in March in a press conference in the Eastern Panhandle with Kennedy. Speaking Monday, Kennedy said out of the $45 million that is spent per day using SNAP, 10% of those purchases include soda. “We all believe in free choice. We live in a democracy. People can make their own choice about what they’re going to buy and what they’re not going to buy,” Kennedy said. “If you want to buy a sugary soda, you should be able to do that, but taxpayers should not pay for it. The U.S. taxpayer should not be paying to feed kids in our country with foods that are going to give them diabetes.” Morrisey said he wants to continue his efforts to increase work, job training and education requirements for future SNAP benefits. SNAP typically requires able-bodied adults without dependents between the ages of 18 and 54 to work or be in a work program for a minimum of 20 hours per week to remain eligible for SNAP beyond an initial three-month period. “I want to make sure that West Virginia is out in front on that,” Morrisey said. “Our state has one of the lowest workforce participation rates in the nation. I want to get more people to work, and I’m really excited to partner to make that happen.” Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.Local News
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