Vermont has asked the federal government for a waiver that will allow creating a class of banned food purchases for the some 65,000 Vermonters enrolled in 3SquaresVT, the state’s largest supplemental food assistance program.
The state has not yet determined which foods will fall into the prohibited category but they are anticipated to be items considered unhealthy or non-nutritious or containing too much sugar, like soft drinks, etc.
The road to this particular hell is paved with good intentions. People should make healthier food choices. But is it the state’s job to judge and look over peoples’ shoulders at the grocery store?
How will this work? Will grocery stores have to recalibrate their scanning systems so that more items are added to the 3Squares banned list? Will the machine make a loud or different noise if a Gatorade bottle is scanned, calling attention to the shopper?
Late last year, the USDA, which administers SNAP funding said that grocery stores that broke the rules on banned purchases more than a single time would be removed from the program. That’s astonishingly heavy-handed.
To be clear, the intentions are good, but the proposed implementation is bad. It’s judgmental. It’s bulky and potentially embarrassing for those caught up in it. It’s not our business to decide when and if someone needs to buy ingredients to make a special family treat or when someone may use a candy bar to reward a good report card. These are private family decisions.
Shoppers don’t need to be singled out at the checkout line where they are now using pre-paid cards that resemble debit or credit cards versus the paper coupons of latter years. Grocery store clerks don’t need to be put into the middle of determining what is allowed and what isn’t allowed.
Finally, who gets to decide what is and isn’t healthy or nutritious? Butter is a shopping staple, but too much is not healthy. Sugar is a shopping staple but too much is not healthy. Are only some people allowed to sweeten their coffee? Vegetarians could argue that bacon is bad and vegans could argue that milk is bad.
The entire concept of good food and bad food is so fraught with subjectivity, it’s hard to fathom how this could be administered with empathy and humanity.
