RICHMOND, Va. — Gov. Glenn Youngkin said he is "very open" to the idea of requesting a federal waiver to prevent Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits from being used to purchase items like candy and soda in Virginia.
Twelve other states have already requested and received approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for pilot programs restricting certain food purchases.
"We know we're dealing with is just a massive, massive circumstance of unhealthy kids across Virginia and America," Youngkin said. "And so, I do believe that this warrants great study and we're in the middle of giving it in a very focused review. Because, I do think that if we can make sure that our students have healthy diets, and particularly those students that are receiving support because they need a healthy diet and nutrition, let's make sure they get it."
SNAP provides food benefits to low-income families, with more than 863,000 Virginians, roughly 10% of the population, enrolled in the program in July 2025.
A USDA spokesperson said in a statement that Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins supported these waivers and added the agency is "committed to empowering state agencies with greater flexibilities, while also ensuring taxpayer dollars support healthy and nutritious lifestyles."
Youngkin pointed to previous efforts his administration has made to improve food options for children.
"One of the bills that I signed this year, of course, got rid of a whole bunch of some very dangerous food dyes that were in our food system, into our public school system," Youngkin said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Social Services (DSS) added "Virginia continues to explore options to strengthen access to healthy foods and achieve the core goals of improving nutrition and food security. Our SNAP program maintains a strong commitment to supporting access to healthy food options for participants."
"The Virginia Fresh Match Program, for example, is a network of local markets and food stores offering nutrition incentives that double the value of SNAP dollars spent on fruits and vegetables. The Virginia Restaurant Meals Program allows eligible SNAP customers to purchase prepared meals at participating restaurants, and the Virginia SUN Bucks benefit helps eligible families cover the cost of groceries for school-age children when school meals are unavailable during the summer months," they added.
However, the potential change has drawn criticism from advocacy organizations like the Virginia Poverty Law Center.
"I just think that this would be really bad for Virginia families," said Cassie Edner, a public benefits attorney with VPLC.
Edner said she had three main concerns with the potential restrictions. One that they removed dignity of choice from families.
"Another one of our concerns is that this doesn't really address the real issue. SNAP is already very low benefit amount. It's around $6 a day per person. Those benefits don't make it so people can afford healthy food. If we really want to address the issues and make sure people have adequate nutrition, we need to increase SNAP benefits, not limit them," added Edner. "During the pandemic, everyone received the maximum allotment of SNAP benefits for their family size. And we heard people that were able to purchase healthy foods. They were able to purchase fruits vegetables for the first time. And that really made a difference."
"The real solution here would be to increase either SNAP benefits or increase the funding to Fresh Match. Fresh Match is a great program."
Edner said the third concern was about the increased administrative costs from a change like this and from the recently passed federal tax law.
State Sen. Barbara Favola (D-Arlington), echoed those concerns about administrative costs and said they should not be considering any changes to SNAP before they understand the financial impacts of the tax bill.
An analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office indicated the new law will require states to take on more administrative costs plus actual program costs for the first time, potentially leading states to cut benefits or abandon the program entirely.
"At this point, the states do not know all the details of how the new SNAP program will actually be implemented as a result of the One Big Beautiful Bill — regulations have not yet come forward and it's really important to look at the totality of how the program will be expected to work before we start picking and choosing what aspects of the program we want to support and which ones we want to ask for a waiver," said Favola. "And it's important to note too that SNAP is a safety net program that serves many of the same people who are on Medicaid expansion or on housing vouchers and it's important to look at the entire safety net for the cohort of folks that are going to be affected by by the SNAP cuts and by other cuts."
Favola said she hoped to gain clarity on what the federal tax law means for these programs and Virginia when Youngkin and the Finance Secretary appear before a joint meeting of the General Assembly's money committees on Thursday morning.
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