As Lynchburg ended its first month with new, more secure payment cards for federal food aid, it’s reporting a third as much benefit theft as it reported in August, according to data provided by the city’s human services department.
Lynchburg was one of the first Virginia localities to receive the new cards, as benefit theft remains a threat statewide and in the city, where stolen benefits reached a peak of nearly $63,000 in August. As of Thursday, reported theft for October was just shy of $20,000, said Selina Morgan, the department’s client services supervisor — continuing a downward trend from about $34,000 in reported stolen benefits in September.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits are loaded onto electronic benefit transfer cards for residents to spend at qualified grocery stores and markets. SNAP benefits can be drained from accounts when card information is stolen, often through a method called skimming, by which thieves install devices on card readers that capture a card’s data as it is swiped.
Old cards only had a magnetic stripe, so they had to be swiped to pay, and were thus vulnerable to skimming. New cards have embedded microchips — which are standard in the debit and credit card industry — and recipients can tap or insert the card to pay, which leads to a more secure transaction.
This fall, the state began issuing the chip-enabled cards to a pilot group of 20 localities, including Lynchburg.
The federal government ended a program to reimburse recipients for stolen SNAP benefits in December 2024. Seeing households unable to purchase food after losing benefits to theft “was a really big drive” for Lynchburg to participate in the pilot program, Morgan said in an interview, “even if that meant we’re going to be ironing out the kinks” of a new technology.
“We want our families to not have to figure out that additional burden of ‘How am I going to feed my family this month?’” she said. More secure cards allow Lynchburg to “keep SNAP within our households, as well as the income from that within our economy, our mom-and-pop shops, our markets,” she added.
The reported theft in Lynchburg in October came from the old magnetic strip cards, Morgan said. She has yet to receive any reports of skimmed benefits from the new chip cards.
Most Lynchburg residents received their new cards by the end of September, Morgan said, but not everyone has activated them and started using them yet. The old cards are expected to expire on Nov. 9, Morgan said, so it’s important to take the activation steps now, as November benefits are loaded onto cards at the start of the month.
As November starts, it’s also important to note a SNAP change that took effect Sunday, Morgan said: SNAP recipients in Virginia will no longer be able to purchase carbonated, sweetened drinks using their benefits. The change does not affect SNAP eligibility, payment amounts or benefit schedules, Morgan said, but recipients should still be aware that their experience at the checkout may change.
Residents who need help activating their new card or think their card has not been delivered yet should call the human services department or stop by, Morgan added.
Of the more than 145,000 cards distributed to the pilot group, about 72,000 were activated as of Oct. 9, Morgan said. Lynchburg-specific activation numbers aren’t available at this time.
There’s still a long way to go to reduce theft from the summer peak, as Lynchburg’s average level of theft was about $2,000 per month in the first half of 2026, according to data provided by the state department of social services.
Even so, Morgan said, the recent decrease in theft is a step in the right direction and has freed up staff time that used to be spent on replacing stolen cards. It comes at a crucial moment, she said, as staff need that time to help residents navigate ongoing changes to SNAP and Medicaid due to federal cuts from H.R. 1, a Republican spending bill passed in 2025.
Statewide mailing of the new cards to all remaining Virginia SNAP recipients will continue in phases from now through December, according to the state department of social services’ website.
Virginia is one of eight states that has issued chip-enabled cards, according to a September news release about the rollout of the new technology. Under a proposed rule released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Oct. 23, all states would have to adopt chip cards and other efforts to enhance card security. The federal department is accepting public comments on the proposed rule change until Dec. 22 and believes chip cards “will significantly reduce SNAP benefit theft due to the enhanced security features that mitigate skimming and cloning attacks,” according to the announcement of the proposed rule.
California, the first state to implement chip cards for SNAP recipients, reported in January that benefit theft had dropped 83% since new cards were issued in January 2024.
