HOUSTON — Some Texas SNAP recipients are going to automatically get help replacing food lost during the storm. However, it is done on a county-by-county basis. One viewer reached out to the Verify team after noticing that Harris County did not make the list. They wanted to know why?
The good news came from Gov. Greg Abbott’s Office.
“The Texas Health and Human Services Commission has received federal approval to automatically provide benefits for supplemental nutrition assistance program recipients in 66 counties.”
Pamela asked the Verify team, “Why is Harris County not on the automatic replacement list? My power was off for over 30 hours and I had to toss away everything in my refrigerator.”
We have three sources for this. They include Gov. Greg Abbott’s Office, the Texas Department of Health and Human Services and the USDA Food and Nutrition Service.
The governor’s office and the HHS told the Verify team, the USDA FNS approved the 66 counties and that it was based on power outage data obtained during the winter storm.
The USDA told the verify team they got that information from the Texas HHS. So, who made the cut? The USDA says they chose counties where over 50 percent of households lost power for more than four hours.
They also verified that Harris County was not one of them.
If you do not live in one of the 66 eligible counties, you can still apply for additional nutritional benefits by calling 211 and pressing option 2. The deadline is March 31, 2021.