USDA Announces Approval of D-SNAP for South Carolina Disaster Areas

WASHINGTON, November 4, 2024 – The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that people recovering from Hurricane Helene may be eligible for food assistance through the USDA’s Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (D-SNAP). Approximately 357,291 households in 28 South Carolina counties and one tribe are estimated to be eligible for this relief to help with grocery expenses.

Through this program, which the USDA makes available through states in the aftermath of disasters, individuals who may not be eligible for SNAP under normal circumstances can participate if they meet specific criteria, including disaster income limits and qualifying disaster-related expenses.

The USDA recently announced that residents of parts of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee may be eligible for D-SNAP. Today, the USDA is also announcing that four additional Florida counties – Desoto, Flagler, Lake and Polk – are now eligible, bringing the total area where D-SNAP is offered to 144 eligible counties and two tribes across the states that is affected by hurricanes Helene and Milton. USDA continues to work with states to offer D-SNAP to their residents.

“USDA is committed to ensuring that families, farmers and communities affected by the recent hurricanes get the support they need, including help with grocery costs, as people struggle with significant disruptions to their lives,” said the Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. “The Biden-Harris Administration, including the USDA, will do everything in our power to help you respond, recover and rebuild — however long it takes.”

South Carolina will serve its virtual and in-person D-SNAP application periods November 12 through November 21, 2024 and December 2 through December 13, 2024, respectively. Eligible areas include the counties of Abbeville, Aiken, Allendale, Anderson, Bamberg, Barnwell, Beaufort, Cherokee, Chester, Edgefield, Fairfield, Greenville, Greenwood, Hampton, Jasper, Kershaw, Laurens, Lexington, McCormick, Newberry, Oconee, Orangeburg, Pickens, Richland, Saluda, Spartanburg, Union and York and the Catawba Indian Reservation. South Carolina will share additional information about D-SNAP application dates and locations through local media.

How to apply for D-SNAP

To be eligible for D-SNAP, a household must live in an identified disaster area, have been affected by the disaster, and meet certain D-SNAP eligibility criteria. Eligible households will receive one month’s worth of benefits—equal to the maximum monthly amount for a SNAP household of their size—to use to purchase groceries at SNAP-authorized stores or from selected retailers online to meet their temporary food needs when they settle back home after the disaster. For more information about South Carolina SNAP, visit South Carolina Department of Social Services. For more information about this and other available aids, South Carolina callers can call 2-1-1.

The D-SNAP announcement today is the latest in a battery of USDA actions taken to help South Carolina residents cope with Hurricane Helene and its aftermath, which also includes:

• Approval of waivers for 10-day reporting requirements for food purchased with SNAP benefits lost due to power outages in affected counties.
• Approval of a mass replacement waiver for SNAP participants in affected counties, allowing households to receive replacement benefits lost due to power outages.
• Approval of statewide waivers that provide administrative and operational flexibility in several nutrition programs, including the National School Lunch Program and the Summer Food Service Program.
• Approval of statewide waivers for the maximum monthly benefit for WIC food packages I, II, and III and the medical documentation requirement for WIC food packages I and II.

The timing of D-SNAP varies with the unique circumstances of each disaster, but always begins after commercial channels of food distribution have been restored and families are able to purchase and prepare food at home. Before operating a D-SNAP, a state must ensure that the proper public information, personnel, and resources are in place.

Although current SNAP households are not eligible for D-SNAP, the USDA has also authorized South Carolina to automatically issue supplemental SNAP benefits to current SNAP households in 27 counties (Abbeville, Aiken, Allendale, Anderson, Bamberg, Barnwell, Beaufort, Cherokee, Chester, Edgefield, Fairfield, Greenville, Greenwood, Hampton, Jasper, Laurens, Lexington, McCormick, Newberry, Oconee, Orangeburg, Pickens, Richland, Saluda, Spartanburg, Union and York) to bring their allocation up to the maximum amount for their household size if they are not already receiving this amount. SNAP households in Kershaw County can request supplemental benefits from their state SNAP agency.

Other USDA Resources and Support

Staff across USDA are working with states, local officials and partners to provide rapid support to communities, farmers, ranchers and small businesses in affected areas. To date, USDA has deployed hundreds of responders and on-site support workers working closely with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help clear debris and to get response and recovery resources where they are needed most. USDA previously announced that the department has already issued flexibility and waivers across its many agricultural service, nutrition and community support programs, and is hard at work looking for additional flexibility to get critical resources and support to communities in need. USDA has also taken steps to expedite assistance to agricultural producers, expedite insurance payments, and implement flexibilities and waivers to accelerate recovery efforts.

Visit the USDA’s Disaster Resource Center for more on how the department is responding to Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

The USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service works to end hunger and improve food and nutrition security through a number of initiatives 16 nutrition assistance programssuch as school breakfast and lunch programs, WIC, and SNAP. Together, these programs serve 1 in 4 Americans over the course of a year and promote consistent and equal access to healthy, safe and affordable food essential to optimal health and well-being. FNS also provides science-based nutrition recommendations through the joint development of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The FNS’s report, “Leveraging the White House Conference to Promote and Enhance Nutrition Security: The Role of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service” highlights ways the agency will support the Biden-Harris Administration’s National Strategyreleased in conjunction with the historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in September 2022. To learn more about FNS, visit www.fns.usda.gov and follow @USDAnutrition.

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