Wyoming is the first state with a SNAP purchase limit scheduled for 2027, on February 1, followed by Kansas and Missouri on February 15 and Hawaii on April 1. Those are the target implementation dates on USDA’s waiver table, updated October 2, 2026. The same table still shows Nebraska starting on December 1, 2026, yet USDA’s separate Nebraska page says a federal court vacated that waiver in June and that implementation may not proceed. Two USDA pages updated on the same day disagree about Nebraska, and every date below is a target, not a guarantee.
Five states aim for November 1 first
Before the calendar turns to Nebraska or to 2027, the USDA waiver table lists five states with a November 1, 2026 target: Montana (high-sugar beverages, energy drinks, candy and prepared desserts), North Dakota (sweetened beverages, energy drinks and candy), Ohio (sugar-sweetened beverages and all fountain drinks), South Carolina (candy, energy drinks, soft drinks and sweetened beverages) and Virginia (sweetened beverages). All five are also target dates, and the table’s own column header calls them that.
Nebraska: a December 1 row beside a vacated waiver
The table’s Nebraska row reads that the state restricts soda, soft drinks and energy drinks, with candy added effective March 1, 2027, and gives December 1, 2026 as the start. The Nebraska page, also updated October 2, carries a different account. It quotes a June 22, 2026 order from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Aragon et al. v. Rollins et al., No. 1:26-cv-00861, directing that the Food and Nutrition Administration’s approval of the waiver be vacated and that implementation not proceed.
That page lists a May 19, 2025 approval, a modification approved May 11, 2026, and a new Nebraska request submitted September 1, 2026, and the page says USDA is working on a response. The table’s separate list of vacated waivers names Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee and West Virginia and not Nebraska, which is the gap between the two pages. A December 1 start therefore rests on a row that the state’s own page contradicts, and until USDA brings the table and the Nebraska page into line, December 1 is the one date in this calendar that two official pages describe differently.
Wyoming opens 2027 on February 1
Wyoming’s waiver page shows approval on March 4, 2026 for a restriction on sweetened, carbonated beverages, starting February 1, 2027 and running two years, through January 31, 2029. No modification is recorded on that page. Wyoming’s list is beverages only, with candy left alone.
Kansas and Missouri share February 15
Kansas targets February 15, 2027 for a restriction on candy and soft drinks, per the same table. Missouri’s page records a December 10, 2025 approval of a restriction on candy, prepared desserts and certain unhealthy beverages, and a June 15, 2026 approval of the state’s request to modify the restricted foods and delay implementation. The page’s duration line still refers to an October 1, 2026 effective date while giving February 15, 2027 as the implementation date, so the date Missouri’s two-year term runs from is not clear from the page alone.
Hawaii waits until April 1, and Nevada until 2028
Hawaii was approved on December 10, 2025 to exclude soft drinks. Its page shows the state asked to move the start from August 1, 2026 to April 1, 2027 and USDA approved that on June 15, 2026. That is the longest wait of the four.
Nevada sits beyond them all, with a target of February 1, 2028 for candy and sugar-sweetened beverages on the same table. It belongs to a later calendar than the four 2027 dates.
What the June ruling means for dates not yet reached
None of the four 2027 states appears among the vacated waivers on USDA’s table. The law-firm analysis by Covington & Burling quotes the court as holding that “Congress defined what ‘food’ is supposed to be, and it did not authorize the agency to amend or waive the definition it enacted.” The firm says the decision “may also affect other waivers and future requests.” The same analysis says USDA also failed to publish required Federal Register notices 30 days before starting projects, and that it was unclear whether USDA or any affected state would appeal.
Keeping a state’s SNAP calendar straight
The 2027 purchase limits arrive on three different dates across four states, with targets that USDA has already moved for Missouri and Hawaii. None of the USDA pages read for this piece asks a household to file anything for these changes, but the dates sit beside the recertification and reporting deadlines that SNAP households also track.
The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer includes a renewal and reporting calendar, a renewal document checklist and 51 state packs for keeping those deadlines in one place.
Open The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer’s state packs for Wyoming, Kansas, Missouri and Hawaii →
This piece was drafted with AI assistance; the dates and court details were checked against USDA’s waiver table and state pages updated through October 2, 2026.
