BATON ROUGE - The Department of Children and Family Services announced Monday it is making adjustments to the SNAP program to help those affected by the coronavirus.

Many who received benefits in March will see an additional boost on their card Tuesday, according to the statement from DCFS. Those eligible will see the funds automatically loaded onto SNAP recipients’ EBT cards.

The state also announced that a federal rule that limited able-bodied adults to only three months of benefits unless they met federal work requirements has been temporarily suspended. 

The added benefits are the result of a waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture authorizing supplemental SNAP benefits to bring each household to its maximum allotment by size. The department says the move will give an estimated $43 million more per month in federal food assistance to about 265,000 Louisiana households, about 63 percent of those in the program statewide.

Households already receiving the maximum SNAP allotment for their household size will not receive supplemental benefits.

Louisiana residents who recently applied for SNAP, but have not yet been certified eligible or received March benefits, will receive their March benefits and supplements in April after being certified eligible.