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F r i d ay, au g u s t 8, 2025
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Elmer Chocolate sold to Florida company La. candymaker known for Gold Brick and Heavenly Hash eggs BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer STAFF PHOTOS By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Students gaze into the entryway as their parents try to find their classroom on Thursday during the first day of school at Progress Elementary.
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CLASSROOM Students report for first day of school across the region BY CHARLES LUSSIER Staff writer
A long line of cars filled with children clad in navy blue and burgundy backed up Thursday morning onto Progress Road. It was the start of the 2025-26 school year for schools in Baton Rouge and throughout most of the region. “They like to bring them to school on the first day,” Progress Elementary Principal Shanelle Fernandez said. “We’ll get everybody home on the bus this afternoon.” It was a longer car pool line than normal for an-
other reason: Progress Elementary is bigger. The modern campus, rebuilt in 2013, is the same size, but its enrollment has grown substantially thanks to the closure last year of two other nearby elementary schools. They are among nine Baton Rouge public schools that were closed as part of a “realignment” plan approved in late April by the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board. For the Scotlandville area, which Progress has served since it opened in 1959, the realignment plan
Southern University volunteers Tianna McDonald, left, and Dajonae Pinto, right, help students Ramona Taylor and Alex Dantzler pack supplies into their backpacks Thursday during ä See SCHOOL, page 6A the first day of school at Progress Elementary.
Elmer Chocolate, the Louisiana candymaker best known for its seasonal boxed chocolates and Gold Brick and Heavenly Hash eggs, has been sold to a family-owned conglomerate based in Florida, ending local ownership of the Ponchatoula manufacturer after nearly two centuries. Hoffman Family of Companies, which describes itself as a “family equity” firm that operates 120 different companies and brands, including hotels, wineries, airlines and newspapers, declined to disclose what it paid for Elmer, which has estimated annual revenues of around $100 million. But Hoffman co-CEO Geoff Hoffman said his firm’s investment philosophy is to buy strong local brands and help them expand while keeping existing management and employees in place. “This is a pure expansion and growth play for us, so no local job cuts, no local losses,” said Hoffman, who shares the CEO title with his brother, Greg Hoffman. “If there were a need for reductions, this wouldn’t be a company we wanted to invest in.” Elmer Chocolate, which first began producing candy in New Orleans before the Civil War, now sells some 40 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate every year. Longtime Elmer CEO Rob Nelson, whose family has owned the company since the early 1960s, said he and his brother, Michael Nelson, will remain in their roles as CEO and president, respectively, and that the investment from the Hoffman acquisition will enable Elmer’s to grow beyond Valentine’s
ä See CHOCOLATE, page 6A
Under new La. SNAP rules, soda and candy bars banned Goal is to improve health outcomes, reduce Medicaid costs BY EMILY WOODRUFF
families can still buy chocolate chips. Energy drinks are not allowed, but Gatorade is, as long as Louisiana’s new SNAP rules will it’s full sugar and not the artificialban soda, candy and energy drinks ly sweetened version. The rules starting in 2026, and there are spe- apply to all of the roughly 850,000 cific definitions of what that means SNAP recipients in the state. The goal, according to Gov. Jeff for shoppers. Candy bars are off-limits, but Landry’s administration, is to
Staff writer
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improve health outcomes and reduce the state’s Medicaid costs by limiting access to foods linked to chronic diseases like diabetes and obesity. “This is about getting Louisiana healthy again, which is in coordination with the president’s effort to make America healthy again,”
Landry said on a recent podcast recorded at Prejean’s Restaurant in Broussard. “Snickers is not for lunch.” According to Landry the federal waiver, Louisiana will prohibit SNAP purchases of soft drinks, which is defined as “any carbonated nonal-
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coholic beverage containing high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners.” Excluded are “flavored carbonated water,” drinks, those “that contain milk or milk products, soy, rice, or similar milk substitutes,” and beverages with “equal to or greater than 50% of vegetable or fruit juice by volume.” That means
ä See SNAP, page 6A
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