{"id":64528,"date":"2026-04-07T19:31:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T23:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=64528"},"modified":"2026-04-07T19:31:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T23:31:38","slug":"did-you-know-302","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/04\/07\/did-you-know-302\/","title":{"rendered":"Did you know?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By Paul Waldmiller<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"f0d2ce\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"661\" height=\"360\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/April-7-Did-You-Know-PHOTO.webp?resize=661%2C360&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-64529 not-transparent\" style=\"--dominant-color: #f0d2ce; aspect-ratio:1.8361198384201076;width:397px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/April-7-Did-You-Know-PHOTO.webp?w=661&amp;ssl=1 661w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/April-7-Did-You-Know-PHOTO.webp?resize=300%2C163&amp;ssl=1 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Did you know beginning April 20, 2026, Starting&nbsp;Florida SNAP recipients will no longer be able to use benefits to purchase energy drinks, soda, candy, or any ultra-processed prepared dessert?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ban on these products, approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a two-year demonstration project, explicitly excludes&nbsp;soda&nbsp;(carbonated beverages with added sugars or artificial sweeteners) and candies&nbsp;(sweetened chocolate, fruit, nut, or caramel products), but doesn\u2019t ban chips,&nbsp;or other savory snacks.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you receive SNAP benefits, here is a of what you are, and are not allowed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Banned Items:<\/strong>\u00a0Soda, energy drinks, candy, and ultra-processed shelf-stable prepared desserts.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Allowed Items:<\/strong>\u00a0Chips, savory snacks, fresh produce, grains, meats, dairy, and other nutrient-rich foods remain eligible for purchase.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The restriction applies to SNAP benefits used at retailers, with the state required to track transactions and survey recipients to evaluate if &#8220;nutrient dense purchases&#8221; increase.&nbsp;The policy aims to align the program with its purpose of providing a nutritious diet, though it remains one of the more restrictive waivers in the country compared to states that only ban soft drinks and candy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Paul Waldmiller Did you know beginning April 20, 2026, Starting&nbsp;Florida SNAP recipients will no longer be able to use benefits to purchase energy drinks, soda, candy, or any ultra-processed&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"9","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDRcL0FwcmlsLTctRGlkLVlvdS1Lbm93LVBIT1RPLndlYnA_Zml0PTY2MSUyQzM2MCZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IkRpZCB5b3Uga25vdz8iLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.X52TsdJml9yuvmjXP6DiII6JXleJ29UcI0rjPCZ6p9wMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA0XC9BcHJpbC03LURpZC1Zb3UtS25vdy1QSE9UTy53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiRGlkIHlvdSBrbm93PyIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.TJQmZRMNDLrpESAIEIUDFLbJtNRrkS_JjGydKJ2WoiYMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[319],"class_list":["post-64528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-did-you-know"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64530,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64528\/revisions\/64530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}