Food stamps fall. Poverty remains

The number of Louisianans receiving food stamps fell 21% over the past year, including 81,000 children, after stricter eligibility rules under President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill took effect.

Why it matters: East Baton Rouge Parish feels changes like this more than most places. About one in five residents lives in poverty, about twice the national rate, while Louisiana’s minimum wage remains at the federal floor of $7.25 an hour. Hunger does not stay confined to the people experiencing it. Persistent poverty is tied to higher crime, worse health and weaker educational outcomes, affecting the quality of life across the city.

By the numbers:

• Louisiana Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program enrollment fell from about 800,000 to 632,000, a decline of roughly 170,000 people since the “Big Beautiful Bill” was enacted in 2025, according to an analysis from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank.
• About 81,000 children were among those no longer receiving benefits, nearly half of the total reduction, data from Louisiana shows.
• Louisiana had the nation’s second-largest percentage decline in SNAP participation in the past year, behind Arizona, where nearly half of enrollees were dropped.

The result: What happened to the roughly 4.5 million Americans who have been dropped from SNAP since the law took effect is less clear than the enrollment numbers.

• The Trump administration says stricter work requirements have encouraged more people to find jobs or increase their earnings, and they have cut down on fraud.
• Researchers say that’s not the case, citing a simple fact: job growth has not matched the number of people leaving the program. Plus, the government’s own numbers show that fraud is a small percentage of the total number of people who lost their benefits.
• Food banks around the country report serving more families who no longer qualify for SNAP. (Baton Rouge Food Bank didn’t return RedEye’s call and email to provide information.)
• Churches, relatives and school meal programs are helping fill the gap for some households, though charities acknowledge they cannot replace the purchasing power of federal food assistance.

The quote: “We have a persistent poverty problem in this country,” Kate Bauer, an associate professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Michigan, told the Associated Press. “And we have huge economic disparities. And most people, even in good economic times, are not able to pull their families out of poverty.”

The bottom line: The drop in food stamp enrollment is easy to count. What’s harder to know is where those meals are coming from now—and how many people in Baton Rouge are simply going without.