State: $1.2 Billion In Post-Irma Food Assistance In Florida

News Talk Florida

7 years ago

State: $1.2 Billion In Post-Irma Food Assistance In Florida

Hurricane

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida officials say more than $1.2 billion in federal food assistance has been distributed around the state since Hurricane Irma struck in September.

Department of Children and Families officials said in a news release that 937,000 applications have been processed for the Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Another 1 million households were provided with supplemental SNAP benefits and nearly 1.5 million households had their SNAP benefits.

Maria Stotts, and Heather Mueller, volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, clear debris from a Monroe County sheriff’s deputy’s home damaged by a six-foot storm surge, Sunday, Sept. 17, 2017, in Big Pine Key, Fla. Residents were allowed to return to their homes in the Keys today a week after Hurricane Irma struck the Florida Keys Photo: Al Diaz/Miami Herald via AP.

Officials say this will help more than 7.2 million Floridians recover from Irma.

The department also announced that additional days for disaster nutrition assistance have been set for Nov. 7-9 in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

More than 6,000 agency staff have been deployed to assist in operations and administration of this federal program, including nearly 1,500 temporary workers.