Indiana is nearly eight months into an experiment that aims to test whether it can push some residents to make healthier choices by barring them from using SNAP benefits to buy candy or soft drinks. New survey results obtained by Free Press Indiana News offer a glimpse into how that change is affecting Hoosiers.
Indiana received federal permission to restrict benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — or SNAP — last year. The new restriction started Jan. 1. As part of its waiver, which goes for two years, Indiana is required to evaluate how the change impacts beneficiaries and retailers.
As of July, 472,846 Hoosiers received SNAP benefits.
A voluntary state survey conducted in June found that most respondents do not believe their diet has changed as a result of the new policy, and many people are using their own money to pay for sweets. About two-thirds of people said they were aware of the rule before it rolled out.
The state, which plans to survey SNAP recipients every six months, analyzed results from close to 7,800 people who answered the June survey.
FPI News shared the survey results with Elise Sheinberg, a Ph.D. student at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who is studying the effect of SNAP restrictions. Sheinberg said the results are an unreliable measure of the policy’s effects because the survey relies on respondents’ recollections of their eating and drinking behavior, lacks a control group and has no pre-policy survey data.
“You could totally write something from this that makes it sound like — ‘big, booming success, look what we’ve done,’” Sheinberg said. “I don’t think that there’s actual dietary data to support that.”
With that caution in mind, here are some of the top takeaways.
Most people say the policy hasn’t made them healthier
About 69% of people who answered the survey said they hadn’t changed what they were eating as a result of the restriction. By contrast, about 25% said they were eating either somewhat or much healthier because of the new rule.
People are using their own money to buy candy and soda
The new rule doesn’t stop people from buying sweet treats. Nearly 60% of people who responded to the survey said they had used their money to buy soft drinks and over 45% said they used their own money to buy candy.
Economic research examining the groceries households who receive SNAP purchase, however, suggests restrictions in Indiana and other states led people to buy less soda.
New restriction is humiliating for some families
Some respondents said their families had embarrassing experiences because of the new rule. More than 100 people wrote that they learned about the policy while buying groceries.
“I found out by being belittled by a store clerk for trying to buy ginger ale when I was sick,” wrote one respondent. “I was totally humiliated in front of strangers. I left my whole cart there and left the store crying.”
Others attempted to buy zero-sugar drinks without realizing they are restricted by the new rule.
“I found out when I was denied the ability to purchase with snap, at the cash register, and was embarrassed and humiliated,” another person wrote. “The rule is made to appear to be no ‘sugar’ drinks. Well, I think ZERO sugar soda, and it still gets denied.”
One respondent said she learned about the new policy when kids at school told her son “he will never have pop and candy cause he is poor! I QUICKLY explained that was not good for you and he didn’t need that stuff anyway.”
Just 6% of people use a little-known program to help buy vegetables
Double Up Indiana — which includes the Fresh Bucks program in Indianapolis — gives people a dollar-for-dollar match when they use food stamps to buy fresh fruit and vegetables at participating farmers markets and stores.
Only 6% of survey respondents said they use the program. The vast majority of those who didn’t said they had never heard of it.
The survey also asked about weight-loss drugs
The survey asked some related questions about health, including whether people are on weight-loss drugs like Wegovy, Ozempic or Zepbound. About 16% of people said someone in their household is currently taking one of the drugs.
FPI News, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations. Sign up for our free newsletter.
FPI News reporter Dylan Peers McCoy covers pressing issues throughout the state and how local communities are tackling those challenges. Reach her at 508-259-4809 or dylan.mccoy@fpinews.org.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
