Standard 1.55 ounce Hersey Bar: 25 grams of sugar
Frosted Strawberry Kellogg’s Pop tart: 31 grams of sugar
Arkansas now forbids food stamp recipients from buying candy, soda and other ‘unhealthy’ items with their benefits. The state ordered this despite the explicit ruling of a federal court that such restrictions remain illegal.
Worse, the rules in Arkansas – and other states demanding similar restrictions – try to drive a nail with an armored car.
Yes, a Hersey bar obviously is a candy treat. Yet, they sell Pop tarts in the cereal aisle. “Breakfast bars” on nearby shelves may have little to a ton of sugar.
Now Arkansas produced a few cute colorful pages of sample foods with green check marks or red “Xs” on them to give families an idea of what is or is not allowed. And, they have a smart phone app participants can use to scan a food item’s bar code to see if it’s acceptable.
Only not every possible bar code is included. Alas, to cover every code in real time for thousands upon thousands of shoppers, well, think the best high speed internet service and multiple monster data centers. Oh yes, that data base will change daily.
Who will pay for that?
Of course, it gets worse,
Every food stamp retailer in Arkansas had to sign a Compliance form, stating that letting people buy unacceptable items with food stamps will hurt the retailer. Really hurt.
Let’s go back to Hersey bars… at my local grocer today I counted 52 Hersey bar variants. Individual and six packs of full size bars, standard, King Size and XL bars, Fun Size bars and miniatures, with and without almonds (or peanuts), Cookies and Cream, Dark chocolate options and even Sigar Free bars (which, just like soda with artificial sweetener, is banned) among the mix. I bet if I visited more stores I would find even more Hersey bar options.
Are all of those on the smart phone app?
And Hersey bars are easy. Is Smart Water with artificial flavoring water or “soda?”
Ironically, an Arkansas mom can buy brownie mix and a tub of frosting and that’s okay: pre-made brownies in the store bakery, no.
Amid all the confusion, what did some stores do? They stopped accepting food stamps as payment.
Imagine doing your shopping, filling your cart than learning – at the end of checking out – that you can’t get your food?
Why? Fear of violating the Compliance rules.
Oh, probably in several days or weeks Arkansas will work out their issues. Or, they may elect to follow that federal court order.
For now good people and retailers are stuck in a game that can’t be won. The rules aren’t settled or knowable. Honest mistakes will happen.
Missouri and other states will implement their versions of the game in coming months. Each state will write its own rules, decide for themselves what’s allowed and what isn’t. What some allow others won’t.
So, if an Illinois food stamp recipient shops next to me in Oakville (allowed under federal law), which rules apply?
We’ll learn, maybe.
Glenn Koenen