As Hoosiers ring in 2026, three major initiatives have been announced for the new year, two related to the SNAP program and one addressing disparities in rural health.
Hoosiers who use Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits won’t be able to use the benefits to purchase sugary drinks and candy starting Thursday, according to a press release from the Governor’s office.
The policy change was announced in April during a Make Indiana Healthy Again initiative event in Indianapolis with Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, according to the release.
As part of the SNAP program change, the Family and Social Services Administration has held, and will continue to hold, meetings with retailers for compliance and training; offer SNAP retailer resources online with regular updates; partner with food banks and local organizations to raise awareness; and direct outreach by hanging posters in all division of family resources offices, according to the release.
“This is a common-sense change that will help Hoosiers live healthier lives. By working hand-in-hand with retailers, community organizations and food banks, we’re ensuring this transition is smooth and effective. Indiana is proving that practical, collaborative solutions can make a real difference – and we hope other states will follow our lead,” Gov. Mike Braun said in the release.
When the shift in SNAP benefits was announced in April, Stephanie Boys, an associate professor of social work and an adjunct professor of law at Indiana University, shared a story of her friend. Once a week, the single mother and her two young children sit around a table to play a board game. Between turns, the three of them bite into a candy bar and sip a can of soda, Boys said.
The mother, who is on SNAP, has a job, but has a limited income so she can’t afford to take her children on vacation or to the movie theater. To that mother, Boys said game night with a little treat is how she makes memories with her children.
“They eat healthy the rest of the time, it’s just that’s their family time,” Boys said. “She is on such a limited budget that she doesn’t know if she’ll be able to afford the weekly treat.”
Her friend’s son is autistic, Boys said, so he relies on structure and always looks forward to family game night, which includes their weekly sweet treat. Boys said her friend has been stressed further because her son only takes his medicine with a sip of ginger ale.
“Having that weekly night to look forward to is very important to him. It’s going to be even more difficult than with a neurotypical kid to try to explain, ‘We’re still going to play our games, we just might not have our soda with it,’” Boys said.
At the April event, Braun claimed purchases of sugary drinks, desserts and candy exceed the combined sales of fruits and vegetables on SNAP, but data does not bear that out. A USDA study from 2016 showed soft drinks comprise around 5% of each dollar spent in SNAP and candy amounts to 2%. The vast majority — 80% — is spent on meat, fruits, vegetables, rice, beans, eggs, dairy and prepared foods.
Children enrolled in SNAP consume 43% more sugary drinks than non-SNAP recipients with similar incomes, according to Braun’s statement, but Boys said she hasn’t seen that statistic in SNAP reports and aren’t sure where Braun received that information.
Indiana FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob told Fox59 Monday that the state will not opt into the SUN Bucks program in 2026. The state would need an additional $5 million to $7 million to administer the program, which is utilized by those on SNAP.
The program, known as Summer EBT, offered low-income families $120 per child to buy groceries in the summer. Indiana joined the program in 2024, which kept more than 600,000 Hoosier children fed that summer, according to the USDA.
Indiana Senate Democratic Leader Shelli Yoder, D-Bloomington, issued a statement Wednesday denouncing the decision to opt out of the SUN Bucks program.
Yoder said the SUN Bucks program wasn’t complicated, didn’t raise taxes, and didn’t expand government. The program ensured that children had food when school was out, she said, using federal dollars Indiana families already paid into.
“Hoosier families are being stretched thin in every direction,” Yoder said. “Parents are making hard choices every day just to keep food on the table. In moments like this, government should be stepping up, not stepping away.”
In a separate release, Braun announced Indiana was awarded approximately $207 million for the first year of a five-year federal Rural Health Transformation Program to improve health outcomes in rural communities.
The state will use the money to fund Growing Rural Opportunities for Well-being: Cultivating Rural Health, a five-year initiative designed to enhance healthcare access and data, quality, and outcomes through system innovation and collaboration, according to the release.
Of Indiana’s 92 counties, 64 are considered fully rural, with 18% of rural residents older than 65 years old, according to the state’s application for the grant.
Administrators with the Lake and Porter county health departments said they won’t qualify for the funds because the counties aren’t fully rural.
Rural counties have higher rates of obesity, smoking, diabetes and COPD rates, in addition to higher rates of teen births. Indiana’s infant mortality rate from 2019 to 2023 was 6.7%, and of the top 10 counties with highest infant mortality rates, nine are fully rural, according to the state’s application.
In Indiana, 24% of counties, all of which are rural, are classified as maternity care deserts without obstetric providers and hospitals offering obstetric services. Since 2022, 10 birthing hospitals have ended obstetrics services, according to the state’s application.
Hoosiers in rural communities encounter higher travel times when they need emergency or routine medical care, according to the application.
Further, 16 of the 64 rural counties don’t have enough primary care providers for the number of residents. By 2030, Indiana will need an additional 817 primary care physicians to address critical physician shortages, according to the application.
The application doesn’t address how vaccination or immunization rates will figure into its preventative care goal. As HHS Secretary, Kennedy has tried to transfer his anti-vaccine views into federal policy by firing the 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention immunization committee and removing the COVID and hepatitis B vaccines from the list of recommended vaccines for children.
The state plans to implement 12 GROW initiatives that align with Rural Health Transformation Program goals, 11 of which focus on workforce development, according to the application.
The final GROW initiative will establish Make Rural Indiana Healthy Again regional grants. The state will require $604.2 million from 2027 through 2031 to fund the program, with $75 million distributed annually across eight regional coalitions, according to the application.
Under the grants, each region will have to demonstrate their own sustainability plan, and funding will be used for access, technology innovation, workforce development, Make Rural America Health Again and innovative care, according to the application.
“Indiana’s rural communities are the backbone of out state, and this investment will help ensure that every Hoosier, regardless of where they live, has access to high-quality, sustainable healthcare,” Braun said in a release. “Through GROW, we are building a healthier, stronger Indiana.”
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