New Yorkers on food stamps would not be allowed to spend them on sugar-sweetened drinks under an obesity-fighting proposal being floated by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. David Paterson.
NY Seeks to Ban Sugary Drinks from Food Stamp Buys
New Yorkers on food stamps would not be allowed to spend them on sugar-sweetened drinks under an obesity-fighting proposal being floated by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. David Paterson.
Bloomberg and Paterson announced Thursday that they are seeking permission from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the nation’s food stamp program, to add sugary drinks to the list of prohibited goods for city residents receiving assistance.
If approved, it would be the first time an item would be banned from the federal program based solely on nutritional value.
The idea has been suggested before, including in 2008 in Maine, where it drew criticism from advocates for the poor who argued it unfairly singled out low-income people and risked scaring off potential needy recipients.
In 2004 the USDA rejected Minnesota’s plan to ban junk food, including soda and candy, from food stamp purchases, saying it would violate the Food Stamp Act’s definition of what is food and could create “confusion and embarrassment” at the register.
Some New Yorkers who receive the assistance said officials had good intentions but felt the proposal went too far.
“I can see the sodas, but suppose somebody’s in bad shape and they just want juice?” said Harold Vilson, a 56-year-old Brooklyn resident who said he uses food stamps.
“If people want to buy that stuff, they should be able to. If it’s not an illegal product, they should be able to buy what they want to buy.”
The food stamp system, which was launched in the 1960s, serves some 40 million Americans a month and does not currently restrict any other foods based on nutrition. Recipients can essentially buy any food for the household, although there are some limits on hot or prepared foods.
Food stamps also cannot be used to buy alcohol, cigarettes or items such as pet food, vitamins or household goods.
The city and state proposal would be temporary, so officials could study its effects over two years. It would apply only to food stamp recipients in New York City – 1.7 million of the city’s more than 8 million residents – and would not affect the amount of assistance they receive.
“This initiative will give New York families more money to spend on foods and drinks that provide real nourishment,” said a statement from Bloomberg, who also has outlawed trans-fats in restaurant food and has forced chain restaurants to post calorie counts on menus.
In fiscal year 2009, New Yorkers received $2.7 billion in food stamp benefits and spent $75 million to $135 million of that on sugary drinks, the city said.
The ban would apply to any beverage that contains more than 10 calories per 8 ounces, except for milk products, milk substitutes like soy milk and rice milk, and fruit juices without added sugar.
A 20-ounce sugar-sweetened drink can contain the equivalent of as many as 16 packets of sugar.
Advocates for the poor expressed alarm Thursday about the proposal, which the New York City Coalition Against Hunger said “punishes poor people for the supposed crime of being poor.”
“It’s sending the message to low-income people that they are uniquely the only people in America who don’t know how to take care of their family,” said Joel Berg, the group’s executive director. “The problem isn’t that they’re making poor choices, the problem is that they can’t afford nutritious food.”
There still are many unhealthful products New Yorkers could purchase with food stamps, including potato chips, ice cream and candy. But officials said the proposal targets sugary drinks because they are the largest contributor to obesity.
In New York, a proposal to adopt a penny-per-ounce tax on sweetened soda failed to get out of the state Legislature earlier this year; Bloomberg backed the state proposal.
“We continue to see a dramatic rise in obesity among children, especially in low-income communities,” state Department of Health Commissioner Richard Daines said. “This initiative targets a major public health threat – the high consumption of sugary beverages – which have little to no nutritional value.”
More than half of adult New York City residents are overweight or obese, along with nearly 40 percent of public school students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
City officials said lower-income residents are most likely to drink one or more sugar-sweetened drinks a day; type 2 diabetes is also twice as common among poor New Yorkers compared to the wealthiest.
USDA spokesman Aaron Lavallee said Thursday the agency received the proposal and will consider it.
The department recently launched a pilot program to encourage food stamp recipients to make more healthful choices in their food shopping. Under the program, involving 7,500 randomly selected households in Massachusetts, participants get 30 cents added to their benefit balances for every dollar they spend on fruits and vegetables – which reduces the cost of fresh produce by almost one-third.
lol
No more soda for Crown Heights residents:)
What in the world?
I think that it is an absolutely ridiculous proposal. If they are so concerned about the obesity issue, why not open a government funded gym? Drinking sugary items will not necessarily stop obesity. There are a lot of other thing that can make a person obese.
chnai
how about banning sugar altogether period
get to the real issue
instead of not letting u pay with food stamps it would make more sense to ban those beverages, like this u r targeting the problem. if the store didnt sell the sugary drink then it would not even be an issue whether to buy it or not
good
IT’S ABOUT TIME!!!!
Dood Iddea.
Good it’s about time they start telling them what they can and can’t buy with our hard earned money. I am so sick and tired of going in to the stores and seeing food stamps being used for candy, cake, and junk, I mean come on it should only be allowed to be used for necessities.
Josh L
This is a great idea, I hope it passes
mendel
i dont like the smell of the idea, we are no more babies and there are times when the dr. says that the patient should drink sugary drinks, and if they are legal drinks then why take them away from that person?
in other words who is bloomberg to deside what my diet is going to be? my mother, father or who is he?
MaDDinBklyn
I don’t usually drink soda in my home, yet people have free chioce as to what they want to drink. These liberal nannies should worry about their own children and families, I guarantee that the two year test on the food stamp recepients guinea pigs is actually a test to see if they can ban it altogether for everyone. These liberal politicians need to get back to what they’re getting paid to do best, which is nothing, I wonder when is was exactly that they got it into their heads that we want them to impose their ideas on us.
My 2 cent plain advise
Drink Seltzer its still the best and healthiest.
Add a little sweet and low you have a diet Sprite or wine for a spritzer or just plain on ice.
BM
Total Nonsense and a very slippery slope!
If they’re going to ban soda because of sugar, then why not candy that has ALOT more sugar? and if going there already, sugar substitutes have been shown to be worse for you then sugar! the chemical compound in them don’t allow your metabolism to break it down properly and the sweetness fools your body into wanting to eat more. The end result being eating more and worse for obesity then sugary drinks! Next we’ll have to ban fruits and vegetables because they all have pesticides on it that can cause cancer, liver failure and other terrible diseases! being that it is amolst impossible to get the stuff off, we shouldn’t allow people to buy it with food stamps? oh yeah, we should ban red meat as well! they say that is not good for obesity either. and the things that are bad for you in our diet today go on and on because all of our foods have chemical additives that do unmeasurable damage to our bodies. So where do we draw the line? why just soda? why soda and not potato chips? why a candy bar then? and $20 nuts is better? is that a staple of a diet?
All i’m saying is that it is a terrible slippery slope with no obvious end. The soda industry has just become an easy target.
To LOL
maybe people will start working for a living.
ytd
great idea, it should be banned for cake,cookies,danishes,nosh, it should only be for milk,bread et. get a job!
chani
agree with 11
and
it should be only for necessities
like
REAL FOOD, not the processed stuff.
plus you will stretch your dollar more that way
cc
VERY sensible.
heres the picture from where I see it:
our public assistance does not have money
it is becoming quite well known from very reliable sources (news, doctors, articles, etc) that sugar is seriously detrimental to many areas of health.
therefore, for what reason would it be worth it for public assistance (OUR tax money) should pay for truly useless sugar foods which have no value.
Think of it this way: its public assistance….our tax money is paying for food because people “can’t afford” and “don’t have the money”. So why is sugar a necessity? Its NOT a staple.
right thing to do
It’s not like they’re trying to ban sodas altogether. They’re just saying that the money that the government provides for nutritious food that many families would not otherwise afford should not be spent on junk that’s bad for everyone. So there’s nothing wrong with that.
Oh yeah, they should place a warning label on sodas just like alcohol and cigarettes: Consuming this beverage will increase your risk of obesity, diabetes, and will lead to tooth decay, etc…
agree
BM, I totally agree with you on the pesticide, sugar substitutes and chemicals in food. They’re even worse than sugar. But the thing is that for many people soda is a primary source of daily fluids, so they’re constantly putting sugar into their bodies thoughtlessly and effortlessly, in much higher quantity than other harmful things. So, it probably poses greater risk of health problems.
rdz
Let’s be honest. The reason behind this and the soda tax is that people, especially kids, are getting too fat. This leads to higher health care costs that the government pays. As taxpayers, this means that you are footing the bill since americans do not exercise and are more costly to care for. this being said, perhaps it would be more palatable to expand/introduce gym periods in schools (including yeshivas) and require more physical exercise all students.
Joelie
Maybe we should ban food stamp recipients from buying fancy cuts of meat also, like steaks. After all many middle class people not on food stamps can’t afford them, so why should they buy something that others can’t afford? The point is, is that you cannot control, nor should we try to control what is healthy, what is too expensive, and who should be allowed to eat what. Its all a slippery slope chipping away at our rights to decide what we want to eat, healthy or not. If you give people food stamps because they qualify, then give it with a good heart without conditions of what us not healthy for them. Non-food items should not be included, that’s why they’re called food stamps.
to #12
to #12 most people that are on food stamps work very very very very hard but still have a problem putting food on the table hence the food stamps. Dont judge a person till you r in his place
Avraham Yosef Follick
> “then why not candy that has ALOT more sugar?”
Actually candy and soda have about the same amount of sugar per serving. Check the nutrition labels for yourself if you don’t believe me. The government already limits what can and can’t be bought with food stamps and WIC. Someone can use food stamps for most of their food and buy that soda, wine and cigarette with their own money.
> “maybe people will start working for a living.”
Maybe you should see how hard it is to find a job at all today, let alone a job at a wage that can support a family above the poverty line. Just to cover rent, utilities, doctor, dentist and tuition for 6 kids in Crown Heights today can scarcely be done for under $3500/month. With taxes you need to be bringing in $60K/year before you even get to little luxuries like food or toilet paper. Do you know how hard it is today to get a job making over $60K/year? I know too many people who used to make a good living but now can’t find a job that can support themselves and their families. Hashem yerachaim.
Menachem613
Will Kollel Yungerleit now have to drink Orange Juice and Seltzer
GREAT LAW
Why do so many foodstamp users just by Nosh and Suger?
When Somenes shopping cart is filled with Nosh – usualy its a foodstamp recepient.
Because most foodstamp users dont need foodstamps and they jsu use it for NOSH.
Foodstamps were inteded to help POOR buy FOOD, not to help by nosh.
Go Bloomberg!
I know you are starting a fight with Multi billion dollar industries (coke pepsi etc.)
And your starting a fight with Lazy Welfare New Yorkers.
But this is a VERY smart law.
DOUBLE SAVER
Most of these people who by Suger foods with their foodstamps, are in line to eventualy use MEDICAID to pay their long term health problems.
This is a double saver
Correction to GREAT LAW
Even though most foodstamp user may be hard working poor – but still spend their money on sugery foods.
(BTW nosh is cheaper and easier to prepare than food).
Corner Stores
Soon All the corner stores will go out of business.
(Their only income will now be the illigal sales that go on there actualy they will continue take food stamps for everything).
Meyer Lansky
To #2… there are city funded gyms, go to any park and you can work out for $50 a year. I do it personally.
To the rest of Crown Heights… get off of the food stamps and benefit cards. I am tired of paying for you guys benefits and then you waste it on garbage and sweets. Its not fair to a hard working guy like myself. Buy and make real food!
give us free lessons at GYMIES
i’ve been on food stamps for a couple of years after a divorce and I cd say it has been a real life saver. When you don’t have money, you do not buy nosh or sugary drinks with it, that would be stupid, UNLESS your kid has a birthday party and what are you supposed to serve? chicken?, or a Shabbos party,so for all those who happened to see someone buy nosh with food stamps, what do you know what its exactly for??
I personally never buy sodas EXCEPT a little for Yom Tov because it adds to the festivity or once in a while on Shabbos when there are guests. This law is a put down to Food Stamp holders and in could cause embarrasment at the register, no one that is really poor is using food stamps for soda, their using it for milk, bread and cereal, etc and whats wrong with a little Ginger Ale on Shabbos? I don’t know, but i don’t see it. Maybe Bloomberg could give us free gym lessons by GYMIES for our kids, thats a better idea to keep kids in shape!!!