Turns out there is actual data (not complete, as it does not account for non-SNAP cash purchases … but how many people pay cash at the grocery store?) regarding what groceries people buy with SNAP and what groceries they buy otherwise. Here.
And I get the compassionate argument that I shouldn’t dictate what someone can and cannot purchase just because they happen to have fallen on hard times. That’s a bit like saying you cannot be irked when a friend asks to borrow a couple hundred bucks to make rent and you then encounter the same friend buying a new couture handbag / stereo system / whatever floats their boat. You can! And probably are. Because it’s one thing to blow your own money on whatever you want, it’s quite another to tell me you need help at the same time. So, yeah, I want food bought with SNAP funds to be better than that on which an average American spends their grocery money.
And … kind of surprising … it might be. Either way, #1 is meat/poultry/seafood (not a vegan’s view of healthy, but not guaranteed to be junk food). SNAP folks? #2 is veggies, 3 is cheese, 4 is fruits. Crap starts to show up as #5 (soda and stuff) and 6 (desserts). Frozen prepared foods, 8, are generally unhealthy. For the non-SNAP baskets: soda is #4, frozen prepared foods #4, and prepared desserts #5. Welfare queen stereotype aside, it turns out SNAP recipients do allocate more of their funds to non-junk categories than average American shoppers.
But there’s better and there’s well. I don’t think it’s right for two billion dollars in tax money to go toward SNAP purchases of sweetened beverages. And another two billion for prepared desserts. That’s eight BILLION dollars in one YEAR toward obvious junk if we concede people believe bottled water, fruit juices, and coffee/tea are essentials. Up to 9.7 billion if those are included as well.
SNAP recipient purchases:
| Rank | Category | $ in millions | % of expenditures |
| 1 | Meat, Poultry and Seafood | $5,016.30 | 15.92% |
| 2 | Vegetables | $2,873.90 | 9.12% |
| 3 | High Fat Dairy/Cheese | $2,483.20 | 7.88% |
| 4 | Fruits | $2,271.20 | 7.21% |
| 5 | Sweetened Beverages | $2,238.80 | 7.10% |
| 6 | Prepared Desserts | $2,021.20 | 6.41% |
| 7 | Bread and Crackers | $1,978.20 | 6.28% |
| 8 | Frozen Prepared Foods | $1,592.30 | 5.05% |
| 9 | Milk | $1,211.00 | 3.84% |
| 10 | Salty Snacks | $969.70 | 3.08% |
Non-SNAP purchases – Top 10:
| Rank | Category | $ in millions | % of expenditures |
| 1 | Meat, Poultry and Seafood | $1,262.90 | 19.19% |
| 2 | Sweetened Beverages | $608.70 | 9.25% |
| 3 | Vegetables | $473.40 | 7.19% |
| 4 | Frozen Prepared Foods | $455.20 | 6.92% |
| 5 | Prepared Desserts | $453.80 | 6.90% |
| 6 | High Fat Dairy/Cheese | $427.80 | 6.50% |
| 7 | Bread and Crackers | $354.90 | 5.39% |
| 8 | Fruits | $308.20 | 4.68% |
| 9 | Milk | $232.70 | 3.54% |
| 10 | Salty Snacks | $225.60 | 3.43% |
Breaking into the data farther, either group’s #1 fruit expenditure? Orange juice. Sigh! #1 vegetable expenditure? Potatoes.