The Alabama Department of Human Resources has begun mailing out new chip-enabled EBT cards to SNAP benefit recipients.The upgraded cards offer enhanced security to block unauthorized out-of-state and online purchases.However, Alabama cardholders who wish to make such purchases can still do so by downloading the ConnectEBT Mobile App, visiting the ConnectEBT website or calling the EBT Customer Service phone number.
The new chipped SNAP EBT cards are being instituted as Alabama lawmakers consider a law to limit what items can be purchased through the food assistance program. Legislation under consideration would prevent SNAP recipients from buying products heavy with sugar, like candy or soft drinks. This follows action in five states to impose similar limitations.
Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Utah and West Virginia are the first of at least 18 states to enact waivers prohibiting the purchase of certain foods through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. It’s part of a push by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to urge states to strip foods regarded as unhealthy from the $100 billion federal program -- long known as food stamps -- that serves 42 million Americans.
“We cannot continue a system that forces taxpayers to fund programs that make people sick and then pay a second time to treat the illnesses those very programs help create,” Kennedy said in a statement in December.
The efforts are aimed at reducing chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes associated with sweetened drinks and other treats, a key goal of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again effort. But retail industry and health policy experts said state SNAP programs, already under pressure from steep budget cuts, are unprepared for the complex changes, with no complete lists of the foods affected and technical point-of-sale challenges that vary by state and store. And research remains mixed about whether restricting SNAP purchases improves diet quality and health.
