Blizzard food stamp reimbursement

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - Thousands of food stamp recipients in Rhode Island lost hundreds of dollars of food during the Blizzard of 2013.

A federal law permits them to get reimbursed for a portion of the lost food, but Eyewitness News has learned close to six thousand people didn't receive anything.

During the blizzard, 50 percent of Rhode Island residents in 19 communities lost power.

Families in those areas were reimbursed for 45 percent of their February benefits, but recipients living outside those areas had to show proof of an outage.

"For people living in those other parts of the state who were not in those communities, there is a process for them to fill out an application and have a power outage verified," said Fred Sneesby, RI Department of Human Services Spokesperson.

Residents like Jesse Nelson tell us, that process wasn't so simple because local officials didn't have the information available.

"I lost all my food.  I live on a fixed income," said Nelson.

Eyewitness News inquired about the problem and National Grid has since provided the Department of Human Services with an approximate determination of which streets were without power and for how long.

It gave food stamp recipients the proof they needed.

The Department of Human Services says it realizes they need to work more closely with local officials, emergency management and National Grid to make sure reimbursement goes more smoothly following any future storm event.