Richmond and Chesterfield County are among the first 22 places in Virginia where the state is rolling out new chip cards for people to access SNAP benefits in an effort to thwart criminals from draining food assistance accounts. 

The new electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards aim “to make sure families have secure, accessible support — and are protected from bad actors,” Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger said in an announcement last week of the rollout. 

Both the city and the county were chosen for the first round of card distribution because they experience some of the highest levels of benefit theft. All Virginia residents who receive SNAP benefits will ultimately receive the new cards by the end of December.   

The “skimming” that the new technology is designed to combat occurs when a criminal places an illegal device on a credit card machine that copies card information, allowing thieves to steal the account’s benefits. 

The addition of microchips to cards help prevent this kind of theft. While magnetic stripes transmit account information directly to a card reader, meaning it can be duplicated and stolen, chips create unique, encrypted codes for each transaction. 

According to data from the Virginia Department of Social Services, Chesterfield — which is grouped along with the adjacent city of Colonial Heights — had the seventh-highest amount of benefit theft, totaling almost $220,000. 

Richmond had the 10th-highest amount of theft at just shy of $164,000. 

By far the largest amount of theft occurred in Fairfax County, which at more than 1.1 million people is Virginia’s most populated jurisdiction. The county recorded about $905,000 of losses in 2025. 

Cletisha Lovelace, director of public affairs for VDSS, warned that those figures “may not reflect the full scope of benefit theft across the Commonwealth” because the amounts are voluntarily reported by local departments of social services. 

“SNAP benefits are often what stands between the families we serve and an empty table, and no one should have to worry about going hungry because a criminal targeted the help they depend on,” said VDSS Commissioner Duke Storen. “The threat of benefit theft is real, and this modernization strengthens the security of the benefits Virginians count on.” 

Contact Reporter Sarah Vogelsong at svogelsong@richmonder.org