North Carolina households who currently receive Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) will receive September 2019 benefits early so that they can purchase necessary food immediately following Hurricane Dorian’s landfall.

The state of North Carolina will make more than $88 million available to approximately 380,000 households to enable them to immediately purchase food and replace food that was lost as a result of the disaster.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services received a waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to issue the remainder of September’s FNS benefits for all recipients by Sept. 7. These benefits would normally be available to families between the 3rd and 21st of September.

FNS is a federal food assistance program that provides low-income families with funds to purchase food needed for a nutritional, adequate diet. Once September’s FNS funds are distributed, they will be available for use. However, participants should be aware that since there will be no additional FNS benefits issued in the month of September, they should plan accordingly. This change impacts all FNS recipients in the state.

DHHS has also authorized the remote/automatic issuance of WIC food benefits for participants residing in counties impacted by Hurricane Dorian. WIC participants can confirm this issuance by calling the eWIC customer service telephone number (844-230-0813) or by accessing their account on www.mybnft.com.

For more information on FNS, go to http://www.ncdhhs.gov/assistance/low-income-services/food-nutrition-services-food-stamps or contact your local county DSS office.

For more information on WIC, visit https://www.nutritionnc.com/wic.

DHHS has also created a webpage for Hurricane Dorian at http://www.ncdhhs.gov/dorian. The page will be updated regularly as new information is available.