More States Take Up RFK Jr's SNAP Junk Food BanSix more states will ban sodas and certain sugary snacks from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the Trump administration announced Wednesday. The junk food bans are actually waivers from federal policy requiring retailers to accept SNAP benefits for most unprepared foods. The state waiver requests were approved by USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, but they’ve been championed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “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 press release. The states joining RFK’s initiative Wednesday are Missouri, North Dakota, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Hawai’i, which will become the second Democratic-led state to do so after Colorado. Junk food bans will take effect in 18 states altogether over the course of 2026. Federal nutrition assistance expanded with the encouragement of Kennedy's father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.), who saw starvation firsthand during his travel to Mississippi. See All UpdatesClose