[StBernard] DCFS Announces USDA Approval of Automatic Replacement of Partial Regular SNAP Benefits for August

[Westley Annis]

DCFS Announces USDA Approval of Automatic Replacement of Partial Regular
SNAP Benefits for August

The United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service today
approved a request to automatically replace a portion of August benefits for
regular Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients in
certain parishes after Hurricane Isaac.

The waiver applies to 19 parishes: Ascension, East Baton Rouge, East
Feliciana, Iberville, Jefferson, Lafourche, Livingston, Orleans,
Plaquemines, Pointe Coupee, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. Helena, St. James,
St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Terrebonne and West
Feliciana.

The waiver allows DCFS to automatically replace 30 percent of a household's
August benefits in those parishes. The approval waives a regulation that
typically requires a household to request in writing replacement benefits
due to power outages and other disruptions.

There are approximately 188,546 impacted households in those parishes and
replacement benefits will total about $17,525,740.

DCFS had previously added all September SNAP benefits to recipients' cards
statewide up to ten days early, ensuring that SNAP recipients had benefits
immediately to replace destroyed or diminished food supplies.

DCFS expects to add the replacement benefits to regular SNAP recipients'
benefit cards as early as tonight.