Food stamps (SNAP) in
North Dakota.

USDA approved North Dakota's Healthy Choice Waiver on December 10, 2025, for two years from September 1, 2026, then a revised item list on April 22, 2026. The state then asked to move the start to November 1, 2026, the date FNA now lists. A June 2026 court order vacating other waivers left North Dakota alone.

The block covers drinks with 5 grams or more of added sugar, any artificial sweetener, or under 50% fruit or vegetable juice, including drink mixes. Energy drinks with 65 mg or more of caffeine per 8 ounces, or stimulants like guarana or taurine, are out too, as is candy from chocolate bars to gummies and licorice.

HHS's own chart puts soda, sweetened tea and lemonade, sports drinks, sweetened bottled coffee and electrolyte tablets on the blocked side. Milk and milk substitutes, baby formula, 100% juice, unsweetened seltzer, granola and protein bars, and baking items such as honey or chocolate chips stay allowed.

The rule follows the store, not the card. Another state's card faces the same limits at North Dakota registers, and a North Dakota card used elsewhere follows that state's rules. Online orders delivered to a North Dakota address are blocked too. A blocked item can still be bought with cash or a debit card.

Broad-based eligibility in North Dakota rides on a TANF Information and Referral brochure, DN 246, or the application guidebook. Everyone who signs the Application for Assistance or a review form, on paper or in the portal, is authorized for those referral services, and that alone makes the household BBCE.

A BBCE household must pass the 200% gross limit but not the 130% gross test or the 100% net test. For three or more people, the case is denied only if 30% of net income is more than the maximum allotment. One and two person BBCE households get at least the minimum benefit.

A household with an elderly or disabled member that fails the 200% line is not dropped. HHS tests it a second time under regular SNAP rules, which bring back the asset test and the 100% net limit but skip the gross test.

Every North Dakota SNAP case is on simplified reporting. Report it when gross monthly income goes over 130% of poverty for your household size, when someone wins $4,750 or more from a lottery or gambling, or when a time-limited adult's work hours fall below 20 a week. The deadline is the 10th of the next month.

Households where every member is elderly or disabled and no one has earnings are certified for 12 months; everyone else gets 6. A review form filed between the 1st and 15th of the last certification month is on time, and an interview is required at least once every 12 months.

Federal changes in fall 2025 moved new groups under the work rule: adults 55 to 64 without dependents, people experiencing homelessness, veterans, young adults formerly in foster care, parents whose youngest child is 15 or older, and residents of Rolette County and the Turtle Mountain Reservation, as HHS lists them.

HHS exempts people working 20 hours a week, those unable to work, people in drug or alcohol treatment, half-time students, pregnant people, and members of federally recognized American Indian or Alaska Native tribes. Others in the proof groups must show pay stubs or an activity letter after 3 months.

Short on hours? The Customer Support Center at 866-614-6005 can refer you to an employment and training partner, which can also help pay for transportation, work clothes, tools, licenses and school supplies.

Refugees, asylees and Special Immigrant Visa holders no longer qualify for SNAP in North Dakota, and HHS says the cut took effect at once on December 1, 2025, not at each household's six-month review. People who entered under those statuses and have since become permanent residents should report it to keep benefits.

HHS says people who entered as refugees in the last five years and adjusted to permanent residence are eligible. Benefits stopped in December 2025 under a permanent-resident rule that later changed resumed automatically, with back benefits. Children who are U.S. citizens can still qualify, and WIC stays open.

Since the American Relief Act was signed on December 21, 2024, North Dakota no longer replaces SNAP stolen by card skimming or cloning. If it happens, HHS asks you to file a police report and call the Customer Support Center at 866-614-6005.

You can freeze or cancel the card and block out-of-state purchases in the ebtEDGE app, at ebtedge.com, or through the helpline at 800-630-4655. HHS also suggests a PIN that is hard to guess, a new PIN with each new card, skipping self-checkout lanes, and checking your balance often.

Fill out form SFN 162, Request for Hearing, and email it to dhslau@nd.gov with any papers that back you up. For SNAP you can also ask in writing, by phone, online, by mail or in person, within 90 days of the notice date.

Ask within 10 days of the notice date and the change is held, so benefits stay at their current level until a decision. If you lose, the extra benefits can be recovered. A hearing officer sets the time and place, and the written SNAP decision comes from the Office of Administrative Hearings.