Bill would restrict junk food from SNAP benefits in Kentucky
House Bill 279, filed by Rep. Matt Lockett, R-Nicholasville, would ban snap purchases of junk food and other 'accessory foods.'
Items include:
Soft drinks
Prepared desserts
Chips
Energy drinks
Other foods with minimal nutritional value
Lockett argues the program should focus on nutrition, as obesity and diabetes hit low-income families hardest.
Kentucky bill could reverse efforts to curb puppy mill suppliers
Bill would restrict junk food from SNAP benefits in Kentucky
Former Kentucky football player found dead in Las Vegas
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports SNAP spending on sugary foods outpaces fruits and vegetables by $400 million annually.
This bill would follow the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children's (WIC) more strict guidelines to improve health and cut government healthcare costs.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
5 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Illinois SNAP Education program eliminated amid federal cuts: ‘It's heartbreaking'
In a makeshift classroom in a Roseland low-income housing complex, nine women watched nutrition educator Denetria Adams saute a glistening mix of carrots, celery and onion. Tammy Spivey, 60, raised her hand from the back row. 'What's worse, cooking oil or lard?' 'Lard,' Adams answered, stirring the steaming mirepoix with practiced ease. 'It clogs your arteries.' Across the room, fellow educator Christine Davis jumped in. 'We always want to make sure we're being cognizant of the type of fat that we're putting into our bodies.' She rattled off a list of healthier alternatives. Sunflower oil, olive oil, avocado oil. Spivey jotted down the names on her note sheet, then underlined each word twice. It was the sixth session of a cooking class run by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education initiative, or Snap-Ed. For weeks, Mercy Housing residents gathered to cover nutrition basics, build kitchen skills and learn how to stretch their food stamps. It might also be one of the last. In July, the federal program was abruptly cut under President Donald Trump's sweeping One Big Beautiful Bill Act, leaving thousands across Illinois in the lurch. For decades, SNAP-Ed has partnered with dozens of Chicago organizations — from food pantries to public schools — to address the root causes of health disparities. Now, with just a few months' notice, staff are dismantling a 30-year program carefully woven into the city's social safety net. 'It was an absolute gut punch,' said Daylan Dufelmeier, who heads SNAP-Ed locally as the director of the Chicago Partnership for Health Promotion at the University of Illinois Chicago. 'The work that we do is so important and so critical, so when we got caught in political crossheads, it was brutal.' It's the latest in a flurry of welfare cuts under the Trump administration. The president's recent tax-and-spending legislation has slashed billions in federal food benefits and significantly reduced Medicaid access. Spivey, a former quality control technician, has relied on food stamps and disability checks for as long as she can remember. When she used to cook for her now-grown daughter, both were essential to keep food on the table. She couldn't always afford to prioritize nutrition. 'They cutting out the wrong things,' Spivey said. 'It's not right.' In addition to nutrition education classes, SNAP-Ed programming includes food access directories, social media campaigns and advocacy work. According to staff, those initiatives prevent more than 5,000 cases of obesity and nearly 600 cases of food insecurity across Illinois each year. For many low-income families, budgeting for healthy food options can be a challenge, experts say. That can lead to long-term health issues, including chronic diseases and nutritional deficiencies. But nonprofit research organization Altarum estimates that every dollar invested in the Illinois program returns between $5.36 and $9.54 in health care savings. 'People want to be healthier, they want to be physically active, but they don't have the resources,' said educator Adams, as she spooned out heaps of rice. Despite its documented success, the Republican-led House Committee on Agriculture said in May that the program has yielded 'no meaningful change' since its inception in 1992, wasting taxpayer money. Funding will officially run dry Sept. 30, the end of the federal fiscal year. This fiscal year, Illinois received nearly $20 million in funding for the program. About $5 million went to UIC, and the rest was funneled to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for statewide work. With the funding slashed, roughly 250 staff members will lose their jobs across the U. of I. system. 'These are people that are their communities building trust,' said Germán Bollero, dean of the U. of I. College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. 'That is at the core of our mission: transforming society to be a better place. It's heartbreaking.' Each year, SNAP-Ed is estimated to reach about one million Illinois residents, working with more than 1,800 community partners. About 1.9 million people in the state receive SNAP benefits, according to the Illinois Department of Human Services. At Mercy Housing, Alma Watson, 63, flipped through the pages of her workbook, filled with lines of her cursive handwriting. She scanned a list of recipes — turkey tacos, skillet chicken breasts and baked sweet potatoes — each paired with nutritional information. 'People don't know, and some people really need it. Like me, for one,' Watson said with a laugh. It's her second time taking the eight-week course at Mercy, where she's lived for 15 years. Participants receive boxes of fresh produce and poultry to re-create recipes at home, enough to last Watson for days. But the real joy is being in the classroom again, she said, learning alongside peers. Most of them also depend on SNAP benefits. 'I love this setting. The people are really nice,' Watson said. 'I just love everything so far.' For SNAP-Ed staff, that positive feedback makes the impending shutdown harder. Educators Adams and Davis are set to lose their jobs in a few weeks, but their greatest concern, they said, is for the communities they serve. Through the window, Davis pointed to a weathered convenience store across the street. Its neon posters advertised tobacco and soda. 'Most of the (nearby) grocery stores aren't really grocery stores. They're markets like that,' she said. '(Residents) don't have much of an option.' Food deserts — areas more than a mile from a grocery store — have plagued the Chicago area for years, particularly on the South Side. While SNAP benefits are an immediate solution, SNAP-Ed helped chip away at those broader systemic issues, Dufelmeier said. After funding runs out, operations will likely cease immediately. 'The impacts from the cuts to our programs you may not see next week, but it's a long-term impact,' Dufelmeier said. After the lesson, each participant received a paper plate with sauteed vegetables, chicken, rice and soy sauce. The room had buzzed with laughter, but it was quieter as everyone ate. One resident ambled to the front of the room for seconds. Adams smiled and dished out another helping. 'Here you go, honey.'
Boston Globe
5 hours ago
- Boston Globe
To help low-income kids with cancer have better treatment outcomes, a researcher tries a different innovation: Cash
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'What this showed us is that poverty exposure needs to be targeted in the same way that we think about targeting mutations,' Bona said. Advertisement The launch of Bona's study in late June came weeks before Advertisement The results put into question the efficacy of basic income, which has been heralded as a potential tool to alleviate poverty. But researchers and proponents of cash transfer programs in Massachusetts say the results have not dampened optimism here about the role they can play in supporting low-income families. Instead they say 'Baby's First Years' demonstrates the need for more research into just how much money and other resources and services is needed to pull people out of poverty. It also sharpens the question of what researchers, program managers, funders, and policymakers consider a valuable result. 'These programs are held to unrealistic standards, that this has to be some transformative, life-altering intervention, or it's not worth anyone's time or effort or concern,' said Richard Sheward, a director at Boston Medical Center's Children's HealthWatch, who has 'It would be a major failure if we focused on this one thing and lose sight of the fact that we also need to protect our safety net programs, like SNAP and WIC and other programs that help families thrive and move up the economic ladder, as they are Massachusetts has been a leader in piloting cash programs. Since 2020, Unlike 'Baby's First Years,' these programs focus not on whether the cash transfers impact childhood development markers, but whether they allow families, particularly low-income families, to weather economic storms, spend more on healthy food, and spend more time together, especially during a child's crucial early years. Advertisement Early results of the 'Baby's First Years' study were promising, Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation and a critic of cash transfer programs, But while 'Baby's First Years' didn't show significant developmental changes, it did show that women who received the cash transfers spent the money on food and clothing for their children, not on things like alcohol or cigarettes, which had long been a concern of conservative critics of such programs. The women also spent more time with their children. 'That's dismissed, because we thought we would see these developmental changes,' said Margaret Anne McConnell, a professor at Harvard School of Public Health. 'But think about what that means. A small amount of cash means people got to spend more time with their children. That's incredibly important.' Jennifer Valenzuela is the executive director of Children's Trust, which just finished a program that offers cash transfers during home visits for some new moms in Springfield. She said cash assistance programs can be tremendously helpful for parents who would otherwise be stressed and cash strapped when trying to figure out how to buy basics like food, gas, and utilities. Advertisement 'All those things make an impact on who we can be as parents and how we can engage with a child,' Valenzuela said. 'What would it mean if you weren't able to do some of the basic things that we think about as a parent, things that should be a norm, that many parents don't get to do.' In addition to outcomes, the amount of cash given varies greatly across programs. 'Baby's First Years,' for example, offered $333 a month to moms, regardless of how many children they have. The Unconditional Cash Study, which took place in Illinois and Texas, offered low-income individuals $1,000 per month. During COVID, the federal child tax credit expanded, offering what was essentially a cash transfer of several thousand dollars at once, depending on family size and children's age. As a result of the expanded credit, childhood poverty '['Baby's First Years"] is a valuable study because it challenges us to be more thoughtful about how we design and implement these programs,' said Sheward. 'It just shows us the context matters, the amount matters, what we measure matters, very deeply.' Bona's study, which offers up to $1,000 twice a month per family, is the first of its kind to consider how cash transfers may impact pediatric cancer outcomes for low-income families. It's taking place in multiple sites across the country, is in the early stages, and will last four years. Bona is certain of the relationship between poverty and poorer clinical outcomes. But she isn't clear on the drivers of unequal outcomes, or on how to fix these. Advertisement 'Will this be the right dose? Is it for the right duration in cancer treatment? Will we have to repeat it later on in cancer treatment? We don't know yet,' she said. But if the study shows that cash injections alter a family's food security, reduce parents' psychological distress, and allow sick kids to stay on a clinical trial for longer, 'it will be one of the 'cheapest' interventions we could possibly imagine in the cancer space — far cheaper than most drugs." McConnell, at the Harvard School of Public Health, recently launched a similar study, considering how cash transfers impact time that low-income mothers of premature babies can spend with their children hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit. McConnell isn't measuring the long-term outcomes of the children or the moms. Instead, she's measuring outcomes that may indicate a baby's longer-term health: provision of breast milk and skin-to-skin contact. 'The work I'm doing is to see how to ease the financial strain of having a NICU baby, not replace people's income or lift people out of poverty,' she said. Although her study is designed differently and measuring something different than 'Baby's First Years,' she thinks that everyone can learn from it — even if it has a null result. 'I think you can learn a lot from a study like this, it shows how complex and challenging it is to address child development, without drawing the conclusion that you've learned everything ," she said. 'Any time you have one study that's a definitive answer to a question is unfortunate. It sets up any intervention to fail.' Advertisement This story was produced by the Globe's team, which covers the racial wealth gap in Greater Boston. You can sign up for the newsletter . Mara Kardas-Nelson can be reached at
Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Mexican ranchers struggle to adapt as a tiny parasite ravages their cattle exports to the US
HERMOSILLO, Mexico — The United States' suspension of live cattle imports from Mexico hit at the worst possible time for rancher Martín Ibarra Vargas, who after two years of severe drought had hoped to put his family on better footing selling his calves across the northern border. Like his father and grandfather before him, Ibarra Vargas has raised cattle on the parched soil of Sonora, the state in northwestern Mexico that shares a long border with the United States, particularly Arizona. His family has faced punishing droughts before but has never before had to contend with the economic hit of a new scourge: the New World Screwworm, a flesh-eating parasite. U.S. agriculture officials halted live cattle crossing the border in July – the third suspension of the past eight months — due to concerns about the flesh-eating maggot which has been found in southern Mexico and is creeping north. The screwworm is a larva of the Cochliomyia hominivorax fly that can invade the tissues of any warm-blooded animal, including humans. The parasite enters animals' skin, causing severe damage and lesions that can be fatal. Infected animals are a serious threat to herds. The U.S. Department of Agriculture calls it a 'devastating pest' and said in June that it poses a threat to 'our livestock industry, our economy, and our food supply chain.' It has embarked on other steps to keep it out of the United States, which eradicated it decades ago. As part of its strategy the U.S. is preparing to breed billions of sterile flies and release them in Mexico and southern Texas. The aim is for the sterile males to mate with females in the wild who then produce no offspring. The U.S. ban on live cattle also applies to horses and bison imports. It hit a ranching sector already weakened by drought and specifically a cattle export business that generated $1.2 billion for Mexico last year. This year, Mexican ranchers have exported fewer than 200,000 head of cattle, which is less than half what they historically send in the same period. For Ibarra Vargas, considered a comparatively small rancher by Sonora's beef-centric standards, the inability to send his calves across the border has made him rethink everything. The repeated bans on Mexican cows by U.S. authorities has pushed his family to branch into beekeeping, raising sheep and selling cow's milk. What he earns is just a fraction of what he earned by exporting live cattle, but he is trying to hold on through the lean times. 'Tiempos de vacas flacas' — times of the lean cows — as he calls them. 'At least it lets us continue' ranching, the 57-year-old said with a white cowboy hat perched on his head. Even as ranchers in Sonora intensify their efforts to make sure the parasitic fly never makes it into their state, they've had to seek new markets. In the past two months, they've sold more than 35,000 mature cows within Mexico at a significant loss. 'We couldn't wait any longer,' said Juan Carlos Ochoa, president of the Sonora Regional Cattle Union. Those sales, he said, came at a '35% lower price difference compared with the export value of a cow.' That's hard to stomach when beef prices in the U.S. are rising. The U.S. first suspended cattle imports last November. Since then, more than 2,258 cases of screwworm have been identified in Mexico. Treatment requires a mix of manually removing the maggots, healing the lesions on the cows and using anti-parasite medicine. Some ranchers have also started retail beef sales through luxury butcher shops referred to as 'meat boutiques.' There are other foreign markets, for example Japan, but selling vacuum sealed steaks across the Pacific is a dramatically different business than driving calves to U.S. feedlots. The switch is not easy. With his calves mooing as they ran from one end of a small corral to the other waiting to be fed, Ibarra Vargas said he still hasn't figured out how he will survive an extended period of not being able to send them to the U.S. The recent two-year drought reduced his cattle stocks and forced him to take on debt to save the small family ranch that has survived for three generations. Juan Carlos Anaya, director of Agricultural Markets Consulting Group, attributed a 2% drop in Mexico's cattle inventory last year to the drought. Anaya said Mexican ranchers who export are trying to get the U.S. to separate what happens in southern Mexico from the cattle exporting states in the north where stricter health and sanitation measures are taken, 'but the damage is already done.' 'We're running out of time,' said Ibarra Vargas, who already laments that his children are not interested in carrying on the family business. For a rancher who 'doesn't have a market or money to continue feeding his calves, it's a question of time before he says: 'you know what, this is as far as I go.''
