In Louisiana, between 2019-2021:
- Food insecurity in Louisiana averaged 14.5%.
- That makes Louisiana the 3rdhungriest state with a food insecurity rate 28% higher than the national average of 10.4%.
- The official poverty rate (which does not account for income from safety-net and tax-support programs such as SNAP, EITC, and others) in the state averaged 17.2%.
- But using the Supplemental Poverty Measure (which does include safety-net and tax-support income), the poverty rate falls to 11.6%. In other words, these programs reduced the poverty rate in Louisiana by 33% and the number of people living in poverty by 252,000.
- SNAP, alone, lifted 163,000 people above the poverty line in Louisiana, including 75,000 children, per year between 2013 and 2017, on average.
