Many New Orleans students may lose free meals at schools in the coming years due to drastic cuts to federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps.
In July 2025, federal legislation changed food-stamp eligibility through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which will reduce SNAP funding by about $186 billion over the next decade by limiting non-citizen enrollment and requiring an expanded number of able-bodied SNAP recipients to work at least 20 hours a week.
In May 2025, before the bill went into effect, more than 800,000 Louisiana residents received SNAP benefits. While enrollment nationally dropped 13% in subsequent months, it dropped even more steeply in Louisiana. By this July, one year after the bill was enacted, only about 631,000 Louisianians were enrolled in SNAP — a reduction of roughly 21%…