Louisiana SNAP recipients may find themselves involuntarily giving up soda and candy for Lent this year, as new restrictions on what the food assistance can be used to purchase take effect on Ash Wednesday.

In announcing the changes, state health officials said the timing immediately after Mardi Gras was intentional. The waiver allowing Louisiana to place the restrictions on the federal program commonly known as food stamps was approved last year by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It was set to begin Jan. 1, but the state received approval for the delay.

“You can still buy soda, you can still buy candy, but you cannot use your SNAP card to do it beginning February 18,” said Camille Conaway, the executive director for economic independence at the Louisiana Department of Health. “So we are going to enjoy our candy and our soda and our energy drinks all the way from Mardi Gras, and then we’re collectively going on a really great diet.”

What qualifies as a soft drink or candy?

Roughly 25,000 products will no longer be eligible for purchase with SNAP funds, according to a product list commissioned by the state and compiled by NielsenIQ, a consumer research company.

Under Louisiana’s waiver, “soft drinks” are defined as any carbonated, non-alcoholic beverage containing high-fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners, such as regular or diet sodas. Flavored carbonated waters, such as LaCroix, remain eligible, as do beverages containing milk or milk substitutes like soy or almond milk, and drinks made up of at least 50% fruit or vegetable juice.

Energy drinks containing added stimulants — including fortified caffeine, taurine, guarana or glucuronolactone — are also no longer allowed. That category includes popular brands such as Red Bull and Monster. Coffee and tea remain eligible, as do caffeinated beverages that do not include added stimulants.

Candy is defined as a sugar- or sweetener-based product combined with ingredients such as chocolate, fruit or nuts and sold in bars, drops or pieces. Chocolate bars, gummies and hard candies are excluded, while protein bars and baking ingredients such as chocolate chips or toffee bits are still allowed.

A wide-reaching program

Louisiana is one of about a dozen states that have requested waivers from the USDA to restrict certain SNAP purchases, part of a growing movement and a cornerstone of the ‘Make America Healthy Again’ movement put forth by federal health secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Each state has slightly different rules for what is no longer allowed. For instance, West Virginia restricts sugary beverages but not candy. Texas defines sweetened drinks as having five grams or more of added sugar or any artificial sweetener. Missouri added “prepared desserts” to its list of ineligible foods. 

Nearly 750,000 people in Louisiana — about one in five households — use SNAP, which provides monthly benefits loaded onto a debit-style card that can be used at most grocery retailers. Benefit amounts vary based on household size, income and expenses such as housing.

The average monthly benefit in Louisiana is $377, totaling roughly $1.78 billion per year. The program is entirely federally funded, though the state covers half of the $337 million in administrative costs. That state share is expected to increase to 75% next year under the federal “One Big Beautiful Bill” championed by President Donald Trump.

Health goals, but no rotisserie chicken

State officials said the changes are part of a broader effort to promote healthier eating. When the restrictions were first announced, Gov. Jeff Landry said the state would seek approval to allow SNAP recipients to purchase rotisserie chicken — a prepared food item typically excluded from the program but touted by the state as healthy, cheap and good for feeding a large family.

That request has not yet been approved by the USDA, according to Louisiana Health Secretary Bruce Greenstein.

The USDA doesn’t have a specific timeline for approval or denial, according to a spokesperson. States can make a new request with additional information if a request is denied. 

LDH is also expanding a pilot called the Louisiana Carrot Program, which offers SNAP users 30 cents back for every dollar spent on fresh fruits and vegetables. More than 71,000 people are currently enrolled in 11 parishes, and the program is expected to expand to New Orleans and Baton Rouge later this year.

‘Some confusion’

SNAP is an anti-hunger program at its core, and nearly 830,000 people in Louisiana are food insecure, meaning they don’t have access to enough or adequately healthy food. SNAP’s effectiveness has long been tied to the freedom it gives families and the discreet way benefits are used at the checkout counter, and it’s unclear how changing that might affect shopping habits.

“What does this look like at the register when people are coming up with products, thinking they’re covered, and they’re not?” said Megan Knapp, a public health professor and researcher focused on food policy at Xavier University. “I think there’s going to be some confusion.”

Knapp, who is developing a research proposal to study whether SNAP purchase restrictions actually reduce consumption of sugary beverages, said some retailers have also raised concerns. Smaller stores, in particular, may find it burdensome to manage constantly changing eligibility rules and could opt out of the program altogether.

Marcus Coleman, a public health researcher at Tulane University, said federal cuts to SNAP education funding in September undercut efforts to help families actually eat healthier.

“We’re telling people to buy healthier foods, but what if they don’t necessarily have the knowledge about how to prepare certain things?” Coleman said.

In rural areas, sometimes candy or a soft drink is what’s available, said Coleman, who grew up in Tensas Parish.

“My town has a Dollar General. My grandmother has to travel 13 miles to the next grocery store,” Coleman said. “You need things in between to get by.”

Greenstein said that SNAP has always come with limits.

“It’s a big change, but today you can’t buy a six-pack of beer, you can’t buy paper towels,” he said. “There are things the program has never paid for.”

The waiver banning soda, candy and energy drinks is approved for two years. During that time, the state is required to collect data and regularly report on whether the changes lead to measurable shifts in purchasing behavior and health outcomes.

Tens of thousands remained without power Tuesday in north and central Louisiana as residents braced for more below-freezing temperatures, even as south Louisiana was mostly spared from the worst of the week’s severe winter weather.

Over the weekend, a winter storm that has ravaged much of the country blanketed the upper half of the state with snow and ice, snapping trees and bringing down power lines.

By Tuesday morning, the death toll related to the storm had climbed to at least six, state officials reported. The Louisiana Department of Health confirmed that three people died of hypothermia, with two other suspected hypothermia deaths.

One man died of carbon monoxide poisoning and another died in a fatal wreck related to icy conditions, the agency said. A woman also died after her oxygen concentrator failed during a power outage, according to the agency.

Meanwhile, road conditions prevented some residents from evacuating their homes and shut down parts of the northern parishes.

Drivers were stranded for as many as 20 hours on Interstate 20, according to social media reports, as stuck 18-wheelers near Arcadia and Ruston brought traffic to a standstill. Louisiana State Police troopers conducted supply drops, welfare checks and ATV evacuations in the area.

As of late afternoon Tuesday, over 90,000 customers still lacked power, according to poweroutage.us.

Gov. Jeff Landy toured East and West Carroll parishes by air on Tuesday, when he also met with leaders in Ouachita and Richland parishes to discuss the effects of the storm. Landry has said he is contacting the White House in hopes of getting federal aid.

East Carroll shuts down

The storm’s impact was especially pronounced in East Carroll Parish, which lost power almost entirely.

“It’s been catastrophic,” Sheriff Wydette Williams said. “We’ve had storms before, but the way the power lines and trees snapped like toothpicks, I’ve never saw this before.”

The hospital, prisons, a grocery store and other public spaces were relying on backup generators, Williams said.

It was unclear when power would be restored.

“We have received word from Entergy that they have run into far more problems than anticipated,” the sheriff’s office posted on Facebook. “They are in the parish on the ground working diligently, but they cannot commit to a definitive time and date when electrical services will be restored.”

Residents in East Carroll also lost water service, and some struggled to keep medical devices running amid the outage, according to a release from Delta Interfaith, a coalition of congregations and community organizations in the Louisiana Delta. Blocked roads prevented some residents from evacuating, the release said.

Before the storm, Prudence Grissom bought a propane heater for her East Carroll home. “They advertise that it’s safe indoors,” she said. But just to be sure, the 70-year-old placed it in a doorway, leading to a hallway. Over the course of the weekend, Grissom found herself sleeping for six-hour stretches, struggling to wake up.

A friend called, and on Sunday, when Grissom failed to pick up, alerted the sheriff’s office. A deputy knocked loud enough that Grissom awoke.

“At that point, I said, ‘OK, it has to be this heater,’” she said. “I haven’t been using it since.”

Instead, Grissom donned three sweaters, two pairs of pants and several sets of socks. She lit candles. She watched from her window as ice-coated tree branches snapped and fell.

Grissom moved to East Carroll a decade ago to care for her mother. She is from New Orleans, where after Hurricane Katrina, she lived without power for weeks.

“You put one step in front of another,” she said. “You do the best you can.”

Upcoming temperatures

The Baton Rouge, Lafayette and New Orleans areas were expected to see lows in the upper 20s and lower 30s Tuesday and Wednesday nights, according to the National Weather Service, which forecast that temperatures would stay in the low 40s Thursday night.

Meanwhile, temperatures near Shreveport, Monroe and Alexandria would be in the 20s Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and hover just above freezing on Thursday night, the agency predicted.

The state is expected to see temperatures drop again over the weekend, when nighttime temperatures could dip into the teens near Monroe, Alexandria, Baton Rouge and Lafayette.

Officials have urged residents to follow safety instructions when using devices like space heaters and generators, and to avoid driving in north and central Louisiana.

The state has opened dozens of warming centers that are available to the public. Residents looking for more information on how to stay safe during the storm can visit getagameplan.org.