Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau urged her colleagues Tuesday to make access to healthy food a priority instead of imposing “humiliating” restrictions on how low-income residents use government funds for food. But the Senate advanced the bill on a voice vote.
Purchasing soda and candy with food stamps would no longer be permitted under a proposed Kansas bill, but whether the federal government would accept the move is unclear.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly wants the Legislature to revisit the 2015 policy that placed restrictions on access to the state’s cash assistance program and made Kansas’ program one of the trickiest to access in the country.
Legislation that would prevent Kansans from purchasing soft drinks and candy with food stamps met resistance Tuesday, continuing a series of hearings over what changes are needed to help the state’s most vulnerable residents.
Kansas lawmakers have continued to pass on a federal policy that could make more people eligible for food assistance programs. Now, the state is one of the last in the country that has not yet adopted it.
KU researchers report that every 5% increase in enrollment in the federal nutrition assistance program for low-income families could reduce the number of children a state placed in foster care or protective services by 7.6% to 14.3%.
Kansas officials are extending and expanding access to a federal relief program for vulnerable families whose children were without school meals because of the pandemic.
