COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) – The South Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS) announced Wednesday that it is providing Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (DSNAP) assistance to certain eligible counties due to the ongoing impacts of Hurricane Helene.

DSNAP assistance is provided through electronic debit cards that can be used to purchase groceries from authorized SNAP retailers.

The department said DSNAP support will be implemented in two phases. At each stage, residents can pre-register and have phone calls to receive support. The first phase includes the following counties:

• Aiken
• Allendale
• Anderson
• Bamberg
• Barnwell
• Beaufort
• Cherokee
• Hampton
• Laurens
• McCormick
• Saluda
• Spartanburg
• union
• York

Households that lived within designated counties during Hurricane Helene and suffered unreimbursed losses from the storm may be eligible for DSNAP assistance. These losses include:

• Damage or destruction of a house
• Loss or inaccessibility of income due to disaster-related problems
• Disaster-related expenses that are unlikely to be reimbursed during the disaster benefit period

DSS determined that food loss alone is not a qualifying factor for assistance.

Other Midlands counties that will receive DSNAP assistance in later phases include Fairfield, Kershaw, Lexington, Newberry, Orangeburg and Richland counties.

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