5/23/25 Update: USDA approved Iowa’s SNAP waiver request on May 22, 2025. The state’s final approved waiver does not ban the purchase of garden seeds or food producing plants from purchase with SNAP benefits. Information in this post indicating the opposite has been stricken.
A recent report from Iowa Public Radio found Gov. Kim Reynolds submitted a waiver request to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on March 12, 2025, to restrict certain foods and beverages from purchase with SNAP benefits. Though this type of state waiver had previously never been granted by the federal government, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins recently encouraged states to submit “innovative” waiver requests for federal nutrition programs, and Iowa joins a number of states in doing so.
“These restrictions will do nothing to lower the cost of healthy food for Iowans facing hunger and food insecurity,” said Luke Elzinga, board chair of the Iowa Hunger Coalition and policy and advocacy manager at the DMARC Food Pantry Network. “We are disappointed but not surprised by Gov. Kim Reynolds’ waiver request.”
If approved, the waiver would go into effect on January 1, 2026. Based on the document Iowa submitted to USDA in March, the state is seeking to restrict any food or beverage that qualifies for the state sales tax from purchase with SNAP. This list includes:
garden seeds and food producing plants- candy, gum, and candy-coated items
- soft drinks, lemonade, and fruit punch
- fruit leather, certain granola bars, and caramel corn
“Iowans should be trusted to make the best food choices for their families,” said Sheila Hansen, IHC board member and senior policy advocate/government relations manager at Common Good Iowa. “Let’s make sure all Iowans have greater access to nutritious food, not punish our low-income neighbors and deny kids a candy bar when they want a treat.”
“Banning garden seeds and food-producing plants from SNAP is counterintuitive,” said John Boller, IHC secretary and executive director of Coralville Community Food Pantry. “If Gov. Reynolds’ idea is to teach a man to fish, so to speak, this waiver request would essentially take away people’s bait and tackle.”
The news comes shortly after the state of Iowa announced a new USDA summer demonstration pilot program, Healthy Kids Iowa, as an alternative to Summer EBT. While many questions remain about how Healthy Kids Iowa will be administered, the program aims to assist 65,000 children in Iowa this summer, far fewer than the 245,000 kids who could have benefited from Summer EBT.
“If Gov. Reynolds’ opposition to participating in Summer EBT was the lack of nutritional focus,” said Elzinga, “why didn’t she elect to submit a similar restriction waiver for Summer EBT and participate in the program?”
“The research is clear, we won’t Make America Healthy Again by banning products from SNAP,” said Paige Chickering, IHC board member and Iowa state manager for Save the Children Action Network. “We need sustained investments in programs we know are effective at improving nutrition, like Double Up Food Bucks, to ensure low income families can afford healthy foods.”
Iowa’s March 12 letter to USDA was sent a week before the first SNAP restriction bill (HSB 216) was even introduced in the Iowa legislature this year, and six weeks prior to the Iowa House passing legislation. That legislation (HF 970) did include a $1 million appropriation for Double Up Food Bucks, but only if Iowa were granted a SNAP restriction waiver by USDA.
HF 970 passed the House despite bipartisan opposition, but died in the Senate. Now, with the 2025 Iowa legislative session drawing to a close, there are no state funds being appropriated toward the Double Up Food Bucks Program.
“Instead of investing in evidence-based solutions to improve healthy eating, the state of Iowa is choosing to experiment on low-income Iowans’ grocery carts,” said Nicole McAlexander, IHC vice chair and executive director of Southeast Linn Community Center. “The only thing we know this will do is increase stigma for SNAP participants and perpetuate misconceptions about hard-working, hungry Iowans.”
As a waiver request, Iowa is required to conduct an evaluation to study its impact. According to the March 12 document submitted to USDA, Iowa aims to study the effectiveness of a SNAP restriction ban by comparing the healthy eating behaviors between SNAP participants who receive nutrition education and those who do not. This evaluation seems to propose measuring the effectiveness of nutrition education paired with a SNAP food restriction, and not the effectiveness of the restriction on its own. Along with WIC nutrition education, Iowa plans to use participation in SNAP-Ed to conduct this research, a program which is currently being proposed for elimination in the U.S. House reconciliation budget.
I guess in January I’ll just kill myself and get it over with. Their neo Nazi bill went through.
For 38 years I paid into the system and now when I need help, this is the kind of treatment I get. It’s not their money! I paid my dues. I paid for this. I’m old and a couple cans of mtn dew a day never hurt me before, I don’t need a mother hen food Nazi choosing my meals for me. The ridiculous items they are restricting is obscene! I looked at the list of restricted items and basically, you can barely cook any meals. No spices! No nuts!? Nuts are healthy for people who are not allergic!
This has nothing to do with healthy eating and everything to do with making people, who hate to have to resort to SNAP, miserable so they leave the program and go hungry!
In the county I live in, I overheard the county treasure telling somebody that they need to do something to drive off all the poor and disabled people from the area. This is a sentiment that I have observed all over Iowa. Iowa sucks!
Like almost everything Iowa does, this is not based in science or intelligence. It’s all about controlling and making people miserable! They want to help people? Fix their stupid healthcare system that bends over backwards for kids, but screw the actual people that need to stay healthy to take care of them.
If I wasn’t stuck here in this miserable, hateful, state I’d have gone to a better state with better healthcare long ago.
Because it is not safe for me to openly object to their policies, lest I lose my benefits again; they took them away once because I couldn’t get a letter from my doctor quick enough, that states that I’m disabled, I can’t give my real name and e-mail. I hope you understand.
You have got to be kidding me that it is ok for a parent to buy their kid a candybar on the tax payers’ dollar! If a parent wants to treat their child with a candybar, they can buy it on their own. SNAP funds is exactly what the acronym is- nutritional assistance. Sodas, candybars, gum and the others listed are not nutritional. I don’t argue that our low income families need help. Filling our kids with sugar and processed foods is NOT nutritional, nor should my tax dollar support that. I’m appalled that any adult thinks its ok to financially support junk food.