Today is the last day for interviews for Disaster Food Stamps. Since DSNAP was made available for those eligible in the 25-parishes impacted by Hurricane Ida, DCFS Assistant Secretary for Family Support Shavana Howard said they’d been overwhelmed with calls, but now due to extra staff and extended call hours, hold times have been greatly reduced.
“There’s virtually no wait time, there hasn’t been now for a couple of weeks, and we’re very excited about that. We have been operating 7:30 AM to 6:00 PM last week and this week,” said Howard.
Since enrollment began Howard said they’ve answered more than 250,000 calls and processed about 175,000 cases. She said they averaged eight thousand calls daily. Howard said it is an income-eligible-based program and they look at your income from August 26th to September 24th.
“Depending on their household size, and their income and resources, for example, a household of three could receive as much as $615 in DSNAP benefits,” said Howard.
Calls today are open for all last names for those in the impacted parishes and call hours are from 7:30 am to 6:30 pm. Howard said you must preregister online before you call in and they appreciate everyone’s patience during the process, and they are trying to make it as convenient as possible.
“We did implement a virtual hold option though, for those who don’t want to wait, they can leave their phone number and they’ll keep their place in line and then we will call them back at the appropriate time once their place is up,” said Howard.
For more information visit DCFS.louisiana.gov/DSNAP
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