Nine states allow food stamps to be spent in restaurants, and two more are in the process of allowing it. The fact that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is buying taxpayer-funded meals at establishments like McDonald’s has triggered one Republican senator to introduce a bill to stop it.
More than half a billion dollars in taxpayer money went to paying for the indigent to dine out through the Restaurant Meals Program between June 2023 and May 2025, a new investigation by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) found.
“While franchises like McDonald’s are making McMillions off of SNAP RMP, allowing fast food to be purchased with food stamps is an idea that is a few fries short of a Happy Meal,” she wrote. “The ‘N’ in SNAP stands for ‘Nutrition,’ and we all know fast food isn’t exactly nutritious,” she continued, alongside photos of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC locations advertising that they accept government benefit cards.
“McSCUSE ME?” Ernst added on X. “The amount of SNAP being spent at fast food should be $0 not McMillions.”
The Federal Agriculture Department, which funds the food stamp program, allows states to optionally allow food stamp recipients to spend their money at restaurants if they are 60 years or older, disabled, the spouse of such a person, or homeless.
Ernst has introduced the “McStopping Chains from Using SNAP EBT to Make Entrees Act,” or the McSCUSE ME Act, that would allow the elderly or disabled to get hot, prepared meals from deli counters and hot bars of grocery stores, but not from fast food chains. It would also remove spouses of qualified people from eligibility.
The SNAP program was already under scrutiny for allowing the indigent to purchase nearly anything edible, such as candy and soda, even as poor people are more likely to be obese than starving, leading to expensive medical care that is also paid for by taxpayers. Nearly 5,000 stores with words related to “liquor” or “tobacco” in their names accept food stamps, a Daily Wire review of government data found.
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In the last year, conservative states have initiated bans on the purchase of soda — a move that states like New York have also pursued over the years, only to be blocked by the federal government, which must issue a waiver. Yet liberal states are moving in the opposite direction, with some newly adding fast food to the menu.
Oregon is running a “SNAP Restaurant Meals Program” pilot based on a bill its legislature passed in 2024. It will apply to anyone 60 or older or who has a disability, as well as the homeless. Illinois is piloting a restaurant meals program with the same criteria, except that it also extends eligibility to the spouses of people who are disabled or over 60. Restaurants must sign up with the state to accept food stamps.
Other states allowing food stamps at restaurants are Arizona, California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Rhode Island, and Virginia, though the vast majority of the spending is in California.
The move to curtail free soda was met with a lobbying campaign by lobbying groups representing soda and candy manufacturers, who rake in billions of dollars from the program. Ernst’s bill could be met by a similar move from fast food chains.
Twelve conservative states have announced plans to ban taxpayer-funded soda, while Kansas’s Democrat governor vetoed a bill passed by the state legislature to do so.
Related: Why Can Food Stamps Buy Junk Food? How DOGE Could Save Billions And MAHA
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