Everyone who is impacted by severe storms that knock out power faces difficulties, but low-income families with little means are particularly severely hit.
The finances of households that depend on food stamps and other government assistance programs can suffer greatly from power outages that continue long enough for food to degrade.
Qualification for Replacement Food Stamps
Through its Disaster Related Emergency Assistance program, which offers substitute benefits to users of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments, formerly known as food stamps, officials in Tennessee hope to lessen the damage.
The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) SNAP program, which is run at the state level, provides financial help for food purchases.
The Tennessee Department of Human Services (TDHS) is in charge of running the program in Tennessee.
The organization stated on its website that it is prepared to provide replacement (SNAP) benefits to current SNAP households who experienced losses as a result of severe weather that may have resulted in power outages or a household misfortune.
Earlier this week, numerous homes in the state’s western region experienced power disruptions.
The Memphis Commercial Appeal stated that during the severe storms that occurred on Sunday, around 120,000 MLGW customers lost power.
More than 70,000 consumers were still without power as of Monday afternoon. In terms of customer outages, MLGW authorities ranked it as the sixth worst storm in recorded history.
Read more: SNAP Replacement Benefits: Help For Storm-Impacted Households
Utility Provider Warns of Power Outages This Week
Additionally, the utility provider warned consumers to plan on going without power for at least a portion of this week.
You must apply for replacement benefits within 10 calendar days after sustaining food loss in order to be eligible.
Your Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card will be provided SNAP replacement benefits once they have been approved.
According to the TDHS, replacement SNAP benefits will only be approved for the amount of the loss and cannot exceed the current month’s allotment.
Read more: SNAP Replacement Benefits Granted For Storm-Related Food Loss