Allowing disabled individuals to purchase prepared food with SNAP benefits: Helpful or harmful?

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, aims to improve the nutritional status of low-income Americans. Sixty-five billion dollars in SNAP benefits were distributed in 2010. For many participants in SNAP, purchasing prepared foods is prohibited. However, in recent years some states have made an exception for individuals for whom preparing foods is very difficult or impossible. Florida, Arizona, California, Michigan, Rhode Island and Oregon are among states that have recently passed laws allowing individuals who are elderly, homeless, or disabled to use SNAP benefits to purchase prepared foods. Elderly and disabled individuals make up approximately 80 percent of all SNAP beneficiaries, so these exceptions represent a significant business opportunity for vendors of prepared foods. States' exceptions vary in the types of vendors that have been approved for selling prepared foods to SNAP beneficiaries. In some states, the majority of vendors that have been approved are fast-food establishments selling largely obesogenic food items. Meanwhile, disability claims for weight-related diseases continue to rise in the United States. The implications of approving mainly fast-food establishments as prepared food vendors to low-income disabled people are explored and discussed. States' exception laws are compared in regards to their likelihood of accomplishing SNAP's aim of improving recipients' nutritional status.