'Hot Food' Waivers Now Available To GA SNAP Recipients Due To Helene

ATLANTA, GA — Two weeks after Hurricane Helene ravaged most of Georgia as a Category 4 storm, state officials are temporarily bending the rules for some SNAP recipients in hard-hit areas.

Furthermore, the Georgia Department of Human Services has extended the deadline to Oct. 25 for residents to report food loss after Helene.

State officials are offering assistance to people who received SNAP benefits in September. People who experienced a power outage of at least four hours due to Helene can have their food replaced, the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency previously said.

A food loss replacement form stating the amount of food loss must be completed for the loss to be reported to the Division of Family and Children Services.

Thousands of people still have no water or power after Helene's devastating drive through Georgia downed power lines and trees.

Prepared food, or "hot food," waivers are now being permitted for recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in several counties until Nov. 7.

The Georgia Department of Human Services does not normally allow SNAP benefits to be used to purchase prepared foods; however, recipients may now temporarily buy them at approved U.S. Department of Agriculture retailers.

The prepared food waiver covers recipients who live in the following counties: Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Baldwin, Ben Hill, Berrien, Bleckley, Brantley, Brooks, Bryan, Bulloch, Burke, Butts, Camden, Candler, Charlton, Chatham, Clinch, Coffee, Colquitt, Columbia, Cook, Dodge, Echols, Effingham, Elbert, Emanuel, Evans, Franklin, Glascock, Glynn, Habersham, Hancock, Hart, Henry, Irwin, Jasper, Jeff Davis, Jefferson, Jenkins, Johnson, Lamar, Lanier, Laurens, Liberty, Lincoln, Long, Lowndes, Madison, McDuffie, McIntosh, Mitchell, Montgomery, Morgan, Monroe, Newton, Oglethorpe, Pierce, Rabun, Richmond, Rockdale, Screven, Spalding, Stephens, Taliaferro, Tattnall, Telfair, Thomas, Tift, Toombs, Towns, Treutlen, Turner, Twiggs, Walton, Ware, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Wilcox, Wilkes, Wilkinson, Wheeler and Worth.