COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Department of Family Services said Ohio requested and received a waiver to replace the benefits of Jackson County Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients who lost food in power outages on Sept. 27 following Hurricane Helene.

What You Need To Know

  • The SNAP recipients will automatically receive a portion of their monthly benefits deposited to their accounts which will be available on Oct. 11

  • SNAP is a federal food assistance program administered by ODJFS

  • Last week, a waiver was obtained last week allowed an extension of the usual 10-day window for applications to 30 days

The SNAP recipients will automatically receive a portion of their monthly benefits deposited to their accounts which will be available on Oct. 11. Residents in other counties affected by the storms can use a waiver to apply for replacement through the extended deadline to Oct. 27.

“The automatic payment waiver will expedite replacement benefits to those in Jackson County by eliminating paperwork, which benefits both recipients and the county workers who have to process it,” said Matt Damschroder, director of ODJFS.

SNAP is a federal food assistance program administered by ODJFS. Homes that lose food purchased with SNAP benefits because of a power outage of at least four hours can apply to receive replacement benefits for the food lost, so long as it does not exceed their monthly allotment. ODJFS secured a waiver from the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, who is responsible for SNAP guidelines, and helped make the blanket replacement possible.

Last week, a waiver was obtained last week allowed an extension of the usual 10-day window for applications to 30 days. Recipients outside jackson County will have until Oct. 17, 2024 for replacement benefits if they lost power for at least four hours because of the Sept. 27 storm.

The federal government set the amount a recipient is eligible for based on two factors: the impact on perishable food, not shelf-stable food, impacted by a power loss and when they received their last monthly benefit payment. The closer the last payment was to the storm date the more benefits will be replaced. The replacement percentage will be based on a household's last regular benefit amount made available before the storm. 

 

Those outside the blanket replacement have until Oct. 27 to complete JFS Form 07222 submit it to their County Department of Job and Family Services. CDJFS will have to verify the power outage before replacing benefits and households should be prepared to provide of the outage including screenshots of news reports, texts, email alerts or outage maps to prove their area was without power for four hours or more.