Steep SNAP Enrollment Drop in Louisiana Raises Questions About Free School Meals in New Orleans

Many New Orleans students could eventually lose access to free school meals as federal cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, take hold, according to reporting by The Lens.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025, changed SNAP eligibility rules. It is expected to cut about $186 billion in program funding over a decade by restricting enrollment for non-citizens and by requiring a wider group of able-bodied recipients to work at least 20 hours per week.

Louisiana has seen a sharper decline than the country as a whole. In May 2025, more than 800,000 state residents received SNAP benefits. Nationally, enrollment fell 13% in the months that followed, but by this July, about 631,000 Louisianians remained on the rolls, a drop of roughly 21%.

The decline comes as hunger is rising. Second Harvest, a food bank serving Southern Louisiana, has reported higher demand while receiving less food in recent years. Tia Fields, an analyst with the nonpartisan think tank Invest Louisiana, said the new rules add paperwork that complicates enrollment and has reduced participation even among families who remain eligible.

The school connection is direct. Elizabeth Cowles Johnston, a spokesperson for the School Nutrition Association, said children in SNAP households are automatically eligible for free school meals. Her group is concerned about how the cuts will affect access to those meals.

Most NOLA Public Schools take part in the Community Eligibility Program, created by Congress in 2010, which provides free meals to every student at a school when enough of its students qualify. A school's place in the program depends on the share of students directly certified, meaning those who qualify automatically. When families lose SNAP, they must apply for free lunch and be approved, which lowers that share and makes it harder for schools to stay in the program. Cowles Johnston said families at schools outside the program are likely to be hit hardest. "Losing direct certification means they automatically need to apply for benefits or start paying for meals," she wrote, adding that many families above the income limits still struggle with meal prices.

Tess Bradford, chief executive of School Food Solutions, which works with FirstLine Schools and several other New Orleans charter networks, said her company has seen a small decline in automatically qualifying students since the law passed. She is not very worried yet. "Most of the schools in New Orleans, their CEP percentages are high enough that they could take a pretty good hit and still" qualify for universal free meals, she said. She noted, however, that schools with more socioeconomically diverse student bodies, which may qualify by a narrower margin or not at all, would be affected disproportionately.

The stakes are high locally. A 2024 City of New Orleans report found that about one in five residents receive SNAP and that children are the group most likely to face food insecurity. Last school year, 82% of NOLA Public Schools students were classified as economically disadvantaged, meaning they qualified for free meals, and the district's high participation in the community program suggests even more received them. A district spokesperson, Taslin Alfonzo, did not respond to The Lens's requests for comment.

Statewide, nearly 656,000 Louisiana students received free school meals last year, according to Ted Beasley of the Louisiana Department of Education. He said the state will not know the effect of the SNAP cuts until its annual eligibility count on April 1, 2027. Because the community program runs on a four-year cycle, he added, changes to which schools participate will probably be delayed.