By Steven Allen Adams, The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
SUTTON — Moving forward with his plans to encourage West Virginians to make healthier choices, Gov. Patrick Morrisey took the first step in ending subsidization of sugary sodas.
In a press release and video released Tuesday afternoon, Morrisey announced that he had officially submitted a request to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a waiver for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The formal waiver would remove soda as a food product that can be purchased on SNAP, the program that replaced food stamps. Instead, the waiver request would add healthy food to be purchased with SNAP benefits.
“I’m here today to announce that we have officially submitted a SNAP waiver request to ensure that soda is no longer an entitlement under the SNAP program,” Morrisey said. “For a long time I’ve talked about the fact that SNAP, the “N” should stand for nutrition. Well now it’s going to even more than you’ve seen in the past.”
