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If you don't have a fridge, or a stove, that "no prepared food" rule makes it very expensive and extremely wasteful to eat.

It also increases reliance on chips and soda, which a lot of places are trying to (or have) banned on SNAP without addressing the issue of "good" food being a hard to manage with countless restrictions on purchases.

Basically. We have a few grocery stores that have restaurants and put their left over food in a cooler to buy when they close (8pm). You can't use snap until they relabel it and stick it in the cooler thing. Same food but because it isn't handed to you it's snap approved.

Plus, with a slow cooker, instant pot, or just a stove, you can make delicious broth from the leftovers and upgrade your next couple meals.

This is more efficient and cost effective anyway. It's bonkers we don't let people select their own food.

I buy a Costco chicken then make (healthy) soup with the bones.

The value for price on that thing is incredible.

I bet those benefit averages drop drastically, beginning with 2026. Gotta tax cut for billionaires so they can have more foie gras, coffee, and avocado toast on private jets and yachts.

You're thinking of WIC, not SNAP. It's only for pregnant women and kids under a certain age to make sure they have the bare minimum of nutritional needs met. And yeah, it comes with a ton of rules and limits. They've slightly modernized it, but you used to have to use checks that had the items listed and you had to buy it all at once or miss out for the month. There's a booklet that lists the item, with brands and sizes, that can be used. No substitutions or exceptions. And if something is miscoded, oh well. The items are 2% milk or soy milk, peanut butter, whole wheat bread/tortillas, canned fish, low sugar cereal, fruit juice and like $10 worth of fresh fruits and veggies. It can be life saving, but I remember the entire program being really demeaning and too difficult to utilize.

It varies state by state.

Also causes a lot of confusion for more niche products. For example, my local store has glass bottles of milk where you can return the bottles to get some money back, but EBT doesn't cover the cost of the bottle, even though the milk itself is cheaper than the other milk options when you factor in the value from returning the bottle.

Everyone on EBT either needs extra cash to pay the bottle deposit, or they spend more money on milk.

That's not SNAP--SNAP let's you buy whatever food you want, as long as it's not hot/prepared.

You're thinking of of WIC (Women, Infant, Children), which provides food for mothers with young children. These are restricted for a couple of reasons, such as the foods being aimed at infant and child health and, iirc, the approved foods being less expensive and thus having the program's funds go further.