La. scrambles to find funds for food aid

Louisiana political leaders are preparing to use $150 million monthly in state funding to help continue food assistance benefits while the federal government shutdown in Washington, D.C., continues, Gov. Jeff Landry and legislators announced Friday.
“I mean, it’s a choice between using money that we have or people going hungry,” Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said in an interview. “That’s why we have the fund balances that we have.”
At St. Mary Outreach, which serves as a food bank for East St. Mary, Executive Director Brenda Liner said her initial information is that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits would be available for the disabled, seniors and families with children.
“That’s the majority of the people we serve,” Liner said.
No aid may be available for others, including single people with no children, a relatively small percentage of St. Mary Outreach’s clients.
What happens beyond the initial boost in SNAP funding from the state remains unclear.
But “we are prepared,” Liner said.
Donations of food to St. Mary Outreach can be made at 608 First St. in Morgan City. Cash donations may be mailed to that address at Suite 102.
The Louisiana Department of Children’s and Family Services reported in 2024 that about 20% of St. Mary’s population receives SNAP benefits.
Landry issued an executive order Friday directing the state to cover the costs of SNAP for Nov. 1-4. The Louisiana House of Representatives followed with a 97-0 vote Friday for an “urgent request” that would allow state money to be used for the program until the federal shutdown ends.
Ahead of the vote, Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, told his colleagues it was “imperative that today we … take necessary actions to do our jobs, to make sure we take care of them, the most vulnerable of our population.”
The Louisiana Senate is expected to approve the House’s resolution Wednesday.
Advocates for low-income residents praised the Legislature’s decision to preserve access to food assistance.
“Kudos to the Legislature for making this a priority and stopping the disruption of the program,” said Jan Moller, executive director of Invest in Louisiana, a nonprofit organization that pushes for policies that benefit low-income people.
The federal government typically covers the total cost of SNAP but is not doing so while the U.S. government is shuttered. Congress is at an impasse over when and how to cover federal subsidies that make health care plans more affordable and has stalled on approving a funding bill needed to keep the government operating.
Landry’s emergency declaration on SNAP is more restrictive than what lawmakers showed a willingness to support through their resolution. His order only extends benefits for a short period of time, the first four days of November, but legislators want to preserve SNAP benefits for multiple months if necessary, their leaders said. 
In Louisiana, 793,000 people receive SNAP benefits that help them purchase food every month, according to the Landry administration. That equates to 17% of the state’s total population of 4.65 million. 
Henry said it’s not clear yet whether the state will be able to find enough money in the short term to avoid a break in benefits for everyone who receives SNAP assistance. The initial round of support will come from moving money around within the state Department of Health, which has an annual budget of $25 billion. 
“That’s what we don’t know, whether the department has $150 million in cash available [immediately],” Henry said.
The priority for Landry and lawmakers is to ensure seniors and people with disabilities who are enrolled in the program – and receive their benefits at the beginning of the month before others – see no delay in benefits at the end of next week, he said.
If they need to pay for other benefits later in the month, the state has other ways pots of money it can use, but it would take longer for Landry and lawmakers to access them. The legislators hope the health department can find enough money for the entire month of November, such that a delay in SNAP benefits for anyone wouldn’t be necessary.
Lawmakers are also making plans to draw down money from a state savings account, called the Revenue Stabilization Trust Fund, to backfill money the health department spends and to pay for future SNAP benefits if the federal shutdown extends beyond November, McFarland said.
Legislators can tap the account, which contains over $2.7 billion, for statewide emergencies, but the vote required to do so could take close to a month, McFarland said. Lawmakers would be required by law to vote remotely, and leadership is legally required to give them several days to receive and send back the ballots, he said.
Louisiana will be paying for the food assistance to continue, even if the federal government doesn’t reimburse the state for its missed months of service.
“We are sending a clear message that the people of Louisiana are the priority,” said Sen. Gerald Boudreaux, D-Lafayette, head of the Senate Democratic Caucus.
A memo the U.S. Department of Agriculture released Friday indicates states such as Louisiana, who use their own money to cover SNAP benefits during the government shutdown, are not likely to be reimbursed.
“There is no provision or allowance under current law for States to cover the cost of benefits and be reimbursed,” the memo says, while also noting that “the best way for SNAP to continue is for the shutdown to end.”
But there’s a dispute over whether the federal government might be legally obligated to cover SNAP benefits during the government shutdown.
Sharon Parrott, a White House Office of Management and Budget official during the Obama administration who now leads a left-leaning think tank, said Thursday in a  statement that the USDA is required by law to use contingency funds set up to cover SNAP.
Trump officials at the federal agriculture department disagreed, saying the contingency funding for SNAP is only supposed to be used during natural disasters or a similar emergency and not for a federal shutdown.
Ariana Figueroa and Shauneen Miranda contributed to this report from Washington D.C. Bill Decker of the Review added the information about St. Mary.