zlacker

Restrictions on SNAP are tricky business. You can't ask someone on SNAP to spend time preparing food. Prepared meals are expensive, often not accessible, and sometimes difficult to prepare for people with certain disabilities. It might seem strange, but I have known people, very poor people, who rely on "foods in bar and drink form" out of necessity. I have known poor people for whom eating fruit is physically challenging.

SNAP changes like this may be better on a population health level, to be sure. On this I have no evidence. But each restriction placed on food for people living in destitution may mean some people go hungry. (And this excludes issues of caloric density.) I would like to see better data, but sadly, there is none.

>>iteran+(OP)
Sounds farfetched. Especially if restriction is on candy and sodas

>>iteran+(OP)
+1 – it's all well and good for me to buy just some vegetables this week, because I have a pantry full of hundreds of dollars worth of basics, spices, a herb garden, bulk (more expensive) rice/pasta, etc. I also have a single 9-5 job so can spend an hour each day cooking.

But if I had an empty kitchen, lacked the funds to invest in bulk purchases, and had 30 minutes to cook and eat, I'd be eating very differently.

>>MSKJ+E7
As others have pointed out, that's not what the restriction seems to be limited to. The distinction isn't based on sugar content but the amount of "processing", which rules out quite a lot of things beyond just candy and soda.

>>iteran+(OP)
> Prepared meals are expensive

I'm not sure if you mean buying pre-prepared meals is expensive. If that's what you are saying, I agree.

But if you're stating that preparing meals (at your own place from raw ingredients) is expensive. That's simply not true, at all.

>>wtcact+EG1
I would hope that it is clear from context that I mean purchasing pre-prepared meals is expensive.

>>iteran+(OP)
What they need to do is handle disability better. When you try to make it one size fits all you're either too generous with the cheap problems or too stingy with the expensive ones.

>>iteran+(OP)
I very much can ask someone on SNAP to spend time preparing food. In fact, I demand it.