***For Immediate Release***
May 20, 2025
Contact: Sierra Salgado Pirigyi
Communications Director, Nebraska Appleseed
Office: 402-438-8853 x116
sierrasp@neappleseed.org
RELEASE: Nebraska becomes first state to receive SNAP restriction waiver approval by USDA
Approval strips dignity of SNAP participants and will lead to fewer SNAP retailers
LINCOLN, NE – On Monday, US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins signed a waiver that allows Nebraska to restrict Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) participants from using their benefits to purchase soda, soft drinks, and energy drinks.
This is following an April 7 press conference during which Governor Pillen signed a letter of intent to submit a waiver behind a “Make Nebraska Healthy Again” sign, a clear signal that Nebraska is falling in line with President Trump and Secretary Robert F Kennedy, Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” efforts.
Nebraska is the first state to be granted a SNAP waiver of this kind.
Nebraska Appleseed Program Manager for Food and Nutrition Access, Eric Savaiano, issued the following statement in response:
“SNAP is designed to maintain the dignity of participants by helping low-paid people buy groceries. With the approval of this waiver, some of that dignity is stripped away.
Studies show that people on SNAP buy the same things as everyone else, including soda, soft drinks, and energy drinks. By targeting just SNAP participants, we’re poverty-shaming the most vulnerable among us and adding complications to an already complicated system.
Grocers will have to implement this restriction with costly changes to their systems, likely causing some smaller stores to stop accepting SNAP altogether. In rural areas, this will mean fewer – or no – buying options, and SNAP participants traveling miles to use their benefits.
The average SNAP benefit in Nebraska is $5.82 per person per day – or less than $2 per meal. If we were serious about making Nebraskans healthier, we would give participants the resources they need to buy healthier, less cheap foods and incentivize healthier choices – not police their buying habits and embarrass them in public.”
Around 150,000 Nebraskans participate in SNAP including seniors, children, people with disabilities, working families and veterans.
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