Nearly a million Louisiana households received SNAP benefits during COVID

Nearly a million Louisiana households received benefits from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, at times during the COVID-19 pandemic – nearly 212,000 more than in February 2020, a state audit shows.

The Louisiana Legislative Auditor released a report showing how the SNAP program, formerly called “food stamps” saw increased use during the pandemic. Between February 2020 and January 2021, when SNAP usage peaked, Louisiana saw a 27.5% increase in the number of households receiving SNAP benefits.

During that period, Louisiana saw a historic spike in unemployment, with the state’s unemployment rate rising from 5.2% in February 2020 to 13.1% in April 2020.

Why do Louisianans lose SNAP benefits? Many times it has nothing to do with money.

“According to (the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services), the increase in participation was primarily attributed to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on employment and wages, which resulted in more households becoming eligible for SNAP,” the audit said.

The federal government allowed states to expand eligibility, increase benefits and suspend certain quality control measures temporarily during the pandemic. Fewer households were removed from SNAP during the pandemic in Louisiana as well, due to an extension in the time period before a household has to recertify.

Terri Ricks, the secretary of Louisiana’s Department of Children and Family Services, said in response to the audit that the suspension of certain requirements helped ease a lot of the economic strains that Louisiana faced during the pandemic.

“These federal changes allowed DCFS to process five times the regular number of SNAP applications in the initial months of the pandemic, to eliminate many of the barriers to assistance for families in need, to provide food assistance to a record number of Louisiana households, and to increase funds to Louisiana's retailers in a time of economic uncertainty,” Ricks said.

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The audit also shows that – despite many of the harshest effects of the pandemic being over – the state is again seeing a spike in SNAP participation. In March 2022, roughly 780,000 Louisiana households were on SNAP. In January 2023, that number had increased to around 940,000.

The households using SNAP during the pandemic also saw several increases in benefit amounts. One increase came via the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which gave households an emergency allotment of $95 a month. Between March 2020 and December 2022, Louisiana issued more than $2 billion in emergency allotments.

Congress also approved a temporary 15% increase in the maximum SNAP benefit, which amounted to an increase of around $30 per recipient per month. That increase expired in September 2021.

In addition to the two COVID-related increases, the formula behind the SNAP program provided an increase of $36 per recipient per month.

Between the rise in SNAP participants and the increase in benefit amounts, Louisiana saw a 160.7% increase in the amount of benefits paid out between February 2020 and January 2023.

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This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Louisiana saw a historic increase in SNAP participation during COVID