Justin King

Justin King is Policy Director at Propel, where he connects Propel’s millions of benefits-app users with policymakers and stakeholders so their experiences are represented in public policy. His work focuses on economic opportunity and financial health for low-income households; previously, he worked at the Aspen Institute, New America, and for U.S. Senator James Jeffords.

SNAP Purchase Restrictions Are Creating Checkout Confusion, Not Clearer Nutrition

In a Food & Society at the Aspen Institute and Global Food Institute webinar on SNAP purchase restrictions, practitioners argued that the policies are being experienced less as nutrition guidance than as a patchwork of checkout-line denials. Propel’s Justin King, Feeding Texas’s Celia Cole, Restore OKC’s Rachel Newman and NACS’s Margaret Mannion said state-by-state rules are confusing recipients, burdening small retailers and driving substitutions or cash purchases rather than clear evidence of healthier diets. Their practical alternative was to put more weight on access and incentives than prohibition.

The Aspen InstituteMay 29, 202619 min read