Anti-Hunger Coalition highlights need to protect SNAP benefits

BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) – The Louisiana Hunger Coalition, a group dedicated to ending hunger for all of the state’s residents, is making a plea to educate people about how the so called “One Big Beautiful Bill” might affect our most vulnerable population.

Although that bill has not been finalized yet, this group said cuts to SNAP and Medicaid because of this bill could be detrimental.

Several people spoke to this point in a conference held by the Louisiana Hunger Coalition.  

Sandra Roberson works with college students who need a little extra care when getting their education.

“I’m a single mom of four,” said Roberson. “So, I like to say this, ‘Yes honey, I understand, I was on SNAP at one time myself.’  We first initiated a college food pantry and wrap-around service to our students. It’s a game changer for our students. We help them with SNAP, Medicaid, and childcare assistance. They stay in school, but they also are given 125 pounds of food a month, every month, and they get the food from our campus.”

She’s one of a host of people speaking about how much cuts to the SNAP program could hurt our state’s progress.

The Louisiana Hunger Coalition said the “One Big Beautiful Bill” continues to include changes that could restrict access to SNAP and Medicaid for thousands of Louisianians.

John Sillars with Second Harvest Food Bank said due to USDA cuts, there’s already less food at his bank to go around.

“It goes back to Economics 101. The supply is down, and demand is up. Our food supply is down, and as I mentioned earlier, we’ve seen a reduction from the USDA, with an annualized impact of 3.7 million meals,” Sillars mentioned.

Dr. Jennifer Avegno said her research shows cuts to SNAP will hurt our state in several ways.

“I want to highlight that SNAP cuts would increase food insecurity and worsen healthcare outcomes. Healthcare gets more expensive for all of us. People may need to go to the emergency room with advanced disease that could have been prevented with better diet and nutrition, then it more costly for all of us. SNAP also gives positive educational outcomes for young kids. When they’re hungry, they don’t learn. Then you have an ill-educated population. That’s not prosperous.  We’ve seen this for many years in Louisiana. Louisiana made gains in education over the last few years, and much of that was from low-income families who directly benefit from SNAP. Now, we’re at risk of erasing all those educational gains we worked hard to get,” Avegno said.

Lawmakers are trying to finalize the bill before sending it to the President. Proponents of the bill believe it will stimulate economic growth due to tax cuts for able-bodied workers.

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