Bob Carey in Stars & Stripes: Healthy SNAP Act ‘Infantilizes’ Service Members
The government’s distrust of military members to make the best decisions for themselves and its pervasive attitude of condescending paternalism contributes to the military’s recruiting and retention crisis.
Case in point: The Healthy SNAP Act of 2023, which was introduced by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL). This bill would restrict how veterans and active members of the military can use their supplemental food benefits—prohibiting them from buying foods made with added salt and sugar. It seems their government wants to stop them from buying a chocolate bar, just like it seeks to control their how veterans can use their earned education benefits.
About 10 percent of active-duty miliary families experience “very low food security,” meaning they skipped or downsized their meals, ate less than they should, and could not afford to eat balanced meals. The deputy assistant secretary of defense for military community and family policy called food insecurity a “readiness [and] national security issue.”
Yet, citing 13-year-old data, the Healthy SNAP Act seeks to restrict how current and former military members can use their earned food benefits. However, the same study the legislation references concludes that there are “no major differences in the expenditure patterns of SNAP and non-SNAP households.” In other words, those using financial food aid have similar diets to those who do not.
“The Healthy SNAP Act is a bad idea that only hurts military and veteran families it mistakenly claims it is trying to protect,” Bob Carey, NDC’s executive director, writes.
“The real issue is the number of military families and veterans forced to use food stamps because Congress pays our military and an additional 1.2 million veterans such a pittance for their service, current and past, that they cannot feed their families without assistance through SNAP.”
Read the full piece here.
