Georgia has been approved to issue mass replacement benefits to current SNAP households in these 69 Hurricane Irma affected counties:
Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Baker, Banks, Berrien, Brantley, Brooks, Bryan, Butts, Camden, Candler, Clinch, Coffee, Colquitt, Cook, Crawford, Dawson, Dooly, Echols, Emanuel, Evans, Glascock, Glynn, Greene, Habersham, Hall, Hancock, Irwin, Jackson, Jasper, Jeff Davis, Jenkins, Johnson, Jones, Lanier, Lee, Long, Lowndes, Lumpkin, Macon, McIntosh, Mitchell, Monroe, Morgan, Oglethorpe, Peach, Pickens, Pierce, Pulaski, Putnam, Rockdale, Screven, Stewart, Taliaferro, Tattnall, Telfair, Tift, Towns, Turner, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Webster, Wheeler, White, Wilcox, Wilkes, and Worth.
As a reminder, mass replacements are automatic SNAP benefit replacements to current SNAP clients that are issued to cover food purchased with the month’s benefits (in this case September) and then lost in the disaster. The replacement amounts can vary based on the time the client originally received the benefits, the timing of the disaster, and the kind of disaster. For example, if an area lost power, then the extent of the food loss is likely to be limited to perishables. If households in an area experienced flooding/structural damage, then the food lost is likely perishable and non-perishable. Under normal circumstances, a household may contact the local office and put in a written claim for food lost in a disaster. While that’s still an option, this mass replacement process allows for automatic replacement based on what has occurred in the community.
In this instance, households in the approved Georgia counties above will automatically receive replacement of 45% of the September benefit.