Hot chicken and cold soda in Louisiana
It feels a little bittersweet. One of the major goals we set at LAFPC for the coming years was to expand SNAP purchases to allow rotessiere chicken. It’s common sense, healthy, and equitable for struggling Louisiana families. And now, without having to lift a finger, it’s HAPPENING!
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry just made national headlines by filing (and winning) a federal waiver that changes how families can use SNAP dollars. Starting in 2026, folks will be able to buy hot foods like rotisserie chicken with their benefits. Working for expansion of SNAP like this has been top of our mind in the past years. It’s a critical expansion that usually only happens during hurricanes (this is called Disaster SNAP or D-SNAP). Anyone who has ever stood in a grocery store line after a long workday knows how much sense it makes to grab a ready-to-eat meal instead of more processed snacks. This small change acknowledges the reality of how people feed themselves and their families, and it is also more in line with the needs of a modern family.
However, here’s the catch: the same waiver also bans the purchase of sugary drinks, energy drinks, and candy with SNAP benefits. This is something you probably heard us talk a lot about this past legislative session. On the surface, it sounds reasonable. Who doesn’t want healthier communities and fewer empty calories? Louisiana has some of the worst rates of diabetes and obesity in the country. Still, we need to be careful about restricting what people can and cannot buy with their benefits. It can be a slippery slope. Today, it’s candy and soda, but food is a personal choice, not to be decided by politicians, but by families who know their own needs.
SNAP is supposed to be about dignity, choice, and making sure no one goes hungry. Expanding benefits to cover hot foods is a huge win, and it’s something advocates have pushed for years.
But limiting purchases starts to chip away at the core idea that low-income families deserve the same autonomy as anyone else at the grocery store. If we want healthier outcomes, let’s focus on incentives (like doubling fruit and vegetable benefits with Greaux the Good and SNAP matching or making it easier to access local produce), not on paternalistic rules that tell people what they can eat.
I just got off the phone with a farmer, whose mission in life is to get more food to her low-income community, and she shared this wisdom: