With classes resuming in Texas following Hurricane Harvey, schools have federal approval to serve free meals to all of their students through the end of this month, said the USDA, which also relaxed its rules on when meals can be served and what qualifies as a meal. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the goal was ” to make it as easy as possible to administer the school meals programs at this time to ensure that no child affected by this disaster goes hungry.”
Food stamp rules were adjusted in Texas, Florida and Georgia as well. The USDA approved early issuance of monthly benefits in Florida, Georgia and Puerto Rico to ensure recipients will be able to buy food during hurricane recovery. Food stamp recipients in Florida are allowed to buy hot food and hot ready-to-eat food through Sept 30. Ordinarily, recipients must buy groceries for meal preparation at home.
The USDA said it would offer so-called disaster food stamps, if appropriate and requested by states, “to offer continuing food assistance” when grocery stores re-open and people are able to fix meals at home again. A disaster food stamp program will be in operation in Texas soon. Participants in disaster areas receive two months of the maximum benefit allowed; because of natural disaster, a larger pool of people are eligible than usual.
At latest count, 41.5 million people received food stamps, including 3.7 million in Texas, 3.1 million in Florida and 1.6 million in Georgia.