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Cleaning Up SNAP: Healthier Food, Safer Cards, and Real Fraud Enforcement

Scott McClallen
Scott McClallen  |  January 22, 2026 8:00 PM

United States Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has started reforming the Supplemental Nutrition Program that feeds 41 million people, but there’s more room to stamp out fraud. 

The USDA has worked with at least 12 states to stop SNAP recipients from using SNAP benefits on soda and junk food. 

Eight states have upgraded or are upgrading their cards after criminals stole roughly $322 million in benefits meant for real people 

Alabama, Oklahoma, Michigan, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia are upgrading their cards. 

California has already upgraded its SNAP cards after the government paid about $20 million to replace stolen benefits in California in January 2024. By November 2025, reported EBT theft dropped by 83 percent, the state reported. 

In one case, a federal employee helped steal $66 million in SNAP benefits. 

We need better guardrails in the SNAP program to provide healthier staple food to families and to make it easier for the state and federal government to discover fraud.

For example, Michigan has about 10,000 retailers that can redeem SNAP benefits. Of those, about 5,000 are convenience stores, 661 are grocery stores, 340 are farmers and markets, 293 are in the restaurant meals program, 191 are specialty stores, and 2,000 are labeled as “other.” 

A substantial number of SNAP retailers in Wayne County, the state’s most-populated county, are sketchy gas stations, liquor stores, and party stores. 

These places carry the minimum staple foods to get people in the door: Fruits or vegetables, meat, poultry, or fish dairy products; and breads or cereals.

You can spend SNAP benefits at many fast food restaurants in Michigan, including KFC, McDonald's, and more. 


 MI RMP Restaurant List  by  scott.mcclallen