Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank faces more challenges amid SNAP changes

BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — The new federal spending package makes many changes related to how government money is spent. One big change concerns the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and a Baton Rouge food bank could experience more challenges.

“We’ve had some fundamental changes in government funding,” said Mike Manning, the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank CEO.

The nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that more than 22 million American families will lose SNAP support amid cuts outlined in the new spending package, called the “Big Beautiful Bill.” The average loss will be around $150 each month, according to the center’s data.

“We don’t provide SNAP benefits,” Manning said. “That’s from the federal government, but we do try to help people access those resources.”

Those resources continue to stretch thin, Manning said. Over the past year, the food bank’s cut down on the amount of food it can give each month because of a 40% drop in what it gets from the federal government.

“We’re going to have to reduce it from 20 pounds down to 15 pounds,” Manning said. “We’d already reduced it from 25 pounds to 20.”

To make matters worse, Manning said less food is coming in. Workers at the food bank said the stock levels are reminiscent of what it was after Hurricane Katrina and significant floods in 2016.

“This is so extreme,” Manning said. “It’s really unprecedented in my 21 years here.”

Manning said donations are the best way to make an impact to counteract multiple challenges the food bank faces. He said they won’t completely fix the problems, but they will help.

“It can’t get us where we want to be, feeding back at the levels we were, but it can at least get us where we don’t have to reduce it again and stabilize us into next year,” Manning said.

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