MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Many Memphis residents lost power after a storm this past weekend ripped through neighborhoods.
Now, residents need to replace all the food that was lost in their refrigerators.
Thankfully, there’s relief for people using SNAP for government food benefits.
Storm victims on Snap were in and out of the Shelby County Department of Human Services on Tuesday.
Jeanette Hearn’s power was out for two days.
She lost $200 worth of food because of it.
“I lost bread, meat, ground beef, chicken – all of that.”
She says she did what she could to provide for her kids.
“You know. I couldn’t cook anything, because the lights were off. So I had to go buy food with whatever I had left. So I lost everything.”
Anyone on Snap who lost power for more than 12 hours can get that food replaced.
But you have to ask for it within 10 days of the outage.
“It was kind of hard in the heat with little kids,” Hearn said.
Sherlisha Green’s power was also out for two days.
She’s a single mom with two kids.
“When the lights went off the first day, I was okay. But the second day they were off, I was like let me try to grill up some meat. I kind of gave some to the old lady downstairs, because I couldn’t do anything but throw it away. It was going bad.”
Green lost nearly $300 worth of food.
Fortunately, there wan’t much of a wait for replacement benefits.
“I went in there and came right back out. There wasn’t a line or anything.”
That’s a sharp contrast to last May when the storm damage and power problem was much worse.
To be eligible for the replacement benefits, the household must:
- Be current SNAP recipients.
- Have been without power for 12 hours, or have experienced other household misfortunes that have caused the loss of food.
You may have down to the Shelby County Department of Human Service’s to apply, and you can only do it Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the 2000 block of Corporate Avenue.
SNAP recipients must request replacement benefits within 10 calendar days of experiencing food loss. Once approved, replacement benefits are issued to current recipients using their existing EBT card.