In a state already ranked third highest in the United States for food insecurity, Louisiana has now also seen the second steepest drop in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food benefits in the entire country. Many cannot escape the tragic irony that it’s all happening in a state made famous for its great hospitality and world class cuisine. In all, more than four million fewer people are receiving SNAP benefits in the U.S. in the last year with tightening eligibility requirements.
According figures provided by the Louisiana Department of Health, as of June 30, there’s been a year-to-year drop of nearly 21% in recipients of SNAP. That’s a decline of 166,000 fewer adults and children. Yet those same figures also show that neither new work requirements, nor immigration reforms, are seen as the only primary mitigating factors in Louisiana, as they are now being categorized.
As Louisiana Public Radio, and the nonprofit Louisiana Illuminator report, Tia Fields, with Invest in Louisiana, a policy analysis think tank, says if you look at the economy, it doesn’t make sense. “Grocery and gas prices remain the same or higher. Unemployment rates have actually went up. State data show most cases have been closed for procedural reasons. Not because recipients failed new federal work or citizenship requirements. Though they could be why some applications were incomplete.”
Instead, roughly 75% of case closures come from procedural reasons, such as an applicant not responding to a request for additional information, according to a specific list of reasons that the agency categorizes. The list includes whether someone fails an income test, isn’t a U.S. citizen, doesn’t work enough hours or withdraws from the program.
Nationally, Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the changes to work requirements were expected to reduce SNAP recipient numbers by 2.4 million people in an average month over the 2025-34 period. And with states covering half of the administrative costs for running SNAP starting in October. And starting in October 2027, states that underpay or overpay recipients, what’s known as “payment error rates,” will begin losing SNAP funding if it exceeds 6%.
Currently, Louisiana’s rate stands at 8.14%. That error rate would have cost the state 10% of the $1.6 billion in SNAP benefits that Louisiana disbursed over the past year. That has advocates, including the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, fearing states will err on the side of caution with benefit eligibility requirements in the future.
Louisiana’s nearly 21% drop in SNAP recipients in one year is not happening in a political or social vacuum. For some context, U.S. News & World Report has ranked Louisiana as the overall worst state (No. 50) to live four consecutive times in its annual Best States report. That takes into consideration the state’s nearly 19% poverty rate, the 2nd highest in the nation, along with the 5th highest violent crime rate, and heavy industrial pollution.
