(reprint from KLSA – Shreveport)

SNAP benefits will resume for select Louisiana recipients in November.

According to Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, emergency funding from the Revenue Stabilization Fund will be used to reload SNAP cards for the month of November. This will provide temporary state-funded assistance for those on SNAP.

The governor says not all SNAP cards will be loaded on November 1. SNAP funds will be made available to elderly, disabled, and children recipients on a rollout basis.

Landry says every SNAP recipient and household has a set date of the month on which their SNAP cards will be reloaded. On the first four days of the month, beneficiaries who are elderly and disabled will have their cards loaded. The rollout order will be need-based.

“The first four days are the elderly and the disabled,” he said. “After that, every other day a group is loaded, and we have been pouring through the demographics, through the data, to ensure that we can segregate the cardholders, to ensure that we are capturing the most vulnerable in that category.”

Landry also announced that SNAP offices in Louisiana will be closing stating that funding for SNAP office salaries would be reallocated.

“We are going to be closing the SNAP offices because the state pays 50% of those salaries and that allows us to take that 50% SGF, money, and help to fund people so that we feed the elderly, the disabled and children.”

The exact date of closing was unspecified.

Landry encouraged “able-bodied” SNAP recipients to “lean on food banks” and seek out employment using louisianaworks.net to supplement the lack of assistance.