Households on SNAP, the federal food stamp program, in Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina and Virginia are due to lose the ability to buy sweetened drinks with their benefits on Nov. 1, and in the first three states candy and energy drinks come off the list too. All four dates sit on a USDA waiver table last updated Oct. 13, which carries 23 state rows. A federal court vacated four of them, leaving 19 standing restrictions.
The restrictions work through state waivers that let a state remove categories from what SNAP counts as food. Each state wrote its own list, so what is blocked in one of the four states is not what is blocked in the next.
What gets blocked at the register in the four states on Nov. 1
Montana excludes candy, high-sugar beverages, energy drinks and shelf-stable prepared desserts. North Dakota excludes sweetened beverages, energy drinks and candy. South Carolina excludes candy, energy drinks, soft drinks and sweetened beverages. Virginia excludes only “sweetened beverages,” according to the USDA Food and Nutrition Service waiver table.
The people affected are every SNAP household in those four states, plus anyone shopping with an EBT card at a store that takes SNAP online. Montana’s health department says its rule covers all SNAP households and all authorized retailers, and that stores must update their checkout systems to block restricted items. Shoppers in these states need to check which of their regular items fall inside their own state’s definitions before Nov. 1, and plan to pay for anything on the list with another form of payment.
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Which 19 state bans still stand after Aragon v. Rollins
The USDA table records that on June 22, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in Aragon v. Rollins, ordered that the agency’s approval of the waivers in Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee and West Virginia be vacated and that implementation not proceed. Those four rows show no start date. The other 19 carry a target implementation date, and the column is a target, so a date on the table is not the same as a restriction already running at every store.
The 19 rows, with the categories USDA lists for each:
- Indiana, Jan. 1, 2026: soft drinks, candy
- Utah, Jan. 1, 2026: soft drinks
- Idaho, Feb. 15, 2026: soda, candy
- Oklahoma, Feb. 15, 2026: soft drinks, candy
- Louisiana, Feb. 18, 2026: soft drinks, energy drinks, candy
- Texas, April 1, 2026: sweetened drinks, candy
- Florida, April 20, 2026: soda, energy drinks, candy, prepared desserts
- Arkansas, July 1, 2026: soda, fruit and vegetable drinks with under 50% natural juice, energy drinks, candy
- Montana, Nov. 1, 2026: high-sugar beverages, energy drinks, candy, prepared desserts
- North Dakota, Nov. 1, 2026: sweetened beverages, energy drinks, candy
- South Carolina, Nov. 1, 2026: candy, energy drinks, soft drinks, sweetened beverages
- Virginia, Nov. 1, 2026: sweetened beverages
- Nebraska, Dec. 1, 2026: soda, soft drinks, energy drinks, with candy added March 1, 2027
- Wyoming, Feb. 1, 2027: sweetened, carbonated beverages
- Kansas, Feb. 15, 2027: candy, soft drinks
- Missouri, Feb. 15, 2027: candy, prepared desserts, certain unhealthy beverages
- Ohio, April 1, 2027: sugar-sweetened beverages, all fountain drinks
- Hawaii, April 1, 2027: soft drinks
- Nevada, Feb. 1, 2028: candy, sugar-sweetened beverages
USDA does not publish a total of its own; the 19 is the 23 rows on the table minus the four the court vacated.
Why Virginia’s list is shorter, and what Montana exempts
Virginia is the narrow case. USDA’s own Virginia page lists the exclusion as “sweetened beverages” and does not define the term or name products, and it names no candy or energy drink category. Shoppers there who read about “soda and candy bans” elsewhere should not assume candy is covered.
Montana is the most detailed, and its exemptions are what decide a cart. The state defines high-sugar beverages as nonalcoholic drinks with more than 10 grams of sugar per 8 fluid ounces, and energy drinks by caffeine content of more than 6 milligrams per fluid ounce plus stimulants such as taurine or guarana. Artificially sweetened drinks, drinks that are more than 50% juice, milk, plain water, protein bars, store-made bakery items and sugar-free gum are not restricted, according to the Montana health department. Sugared gum is.
How Nov. 1 became the date
The Nov. 1 start is a delay in all four states. North Dakota had planned Sept. 1; its economic assistance director, Rebecca Askins, said the pause “provides an opportunity for our federal partners and retailers to continue to prepare,” according to the North Dakota Monitor. The same report says an Aug. 25 USDA letter from Food and Nutrition Service acting administrator Shiela Corley asked the state to wait so the agency could publish a Federal Register notice and take public comment.
Virginia’s waiver was first set for April 1, 2026, and the agency approved moving it to Oct. 1. USDA’s Virginia page, last updated Oct. 2, still shows the Oct. 1 date. The Oct. 13 table is the later update, and it lists Nov. 1. USDA also put a comment notice on the Virginia sweetened-beverage demonstration into the Federal Register process on Sept. 15.
Does the SNAP benefit change when a drink is blocked?
Montana’s page states that the waiver does not change who qualifies or what benefit amounts are. The monthly allotment is the same; what changes is the set of items it can buy. A household that relied on EBT for soda, energy drinks or candy will have to cover those items another way, while recertification dates and reporting duties stay on the calendar exactly as before.
The open question for the four states after Nov. 1 is whether stores’ checkout systems match each state’s definitions item by item. Montana’s own page tells retailers they have a transition period to make “good-faith progress” on configurations and invites questions at HealthySNAP@mt.gov, so early declines and mismatches are likely to be a store question rather than a benefit question.
Will a rule change slip a SNAP renewal date?
A purchase rule that changes at the register is easy to notice, but the dates that keep SNAP benefits flowing stay where they were, and a household busy adjusting its grocery list can let a recertification or a change report slide.
The story’s money question is what the benefit buys; the related job is keeping the benefit. “The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer” is a 20-page guide with 51 state packs and a renewal and reporting calendar, and Part 7 covers reporting changes and EBT problems.
Put your state’s SNAP renewal and reporting dates on one calendar with the Renewal Organizer →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
