Arkansas Gov. Sanders announced the state would enforce a SNAP candy-and-soda ban despite a ruling that such bans exceed federal law

On June 29, 2026, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that the state would proceed with a ban on using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to purchase candy and soft drinks, effective July 1. Under the state's USDA-approved waiver, SNAP recipients can no longer buy soft drinks — including low- and no-calorie sodas — fruit and vegetable drinks with less than 50 percent natural juice, and candy. "Arkansas is moving full speed ahead, because we won't wait around while our people get less and less healthy and we spend more and more taxpayer dollars trying to fix the problem," Sanders said, framing the ban as a response to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

The announcement came six days after U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, in Washington, D.C., ruled on June 23 that the USDA lacked the authority to approve equivalent SNAP waivers for pilot projects in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Jackson found that the waivers attempt to exempt certain foods and drinks from the Food and Nutrition Act's statutory definition of "food," writing that "Congress defined what 'food' is supposed to be, and it did not authorize the agency to amend or waive the definition it enacted." Arkansas was not a party to that lawsuit, but its ban rests on the same USDA waiver authority the court found deficient.

Arkansas submitted its waiver request to the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service in April 2025, and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins signed it in June 2025 with a July 1, 2026 start date. The governor's office cited Stanford University research finding that restricting sugary-drink purchases through SNAP could reduce rates of obesity and type-2 diabetes. State officials said Arkansas had hired a third-party vendor to build the list of banned items for retailers ahead of the effective date.