North Dakota Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that state residents who participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and lost food due to the recent power outages caused by the June tornadoes, windstorms and hail may qualify for SNAP replacement benefits.
SNAP households that lost power for more than four hours have until June 30, 2025, to request replacement benefits.
Because HHS was able to verify power outage information based on county-wide impacts, households in the following counties can simply request replacement benefits without needing to further verify food loss due to outages:
Barnes, Burleigh, Cass, Foster, Grant, Griggs, Kidder, Logan, Morton, Ransom, Sioux, Steele, Stutsman and Traill.
SNAP households living in all other North Dakota counties may still be eligible if they experienced food loss, but must verify that they were affected by a power outage of four hours or more to receive replacement benefits. Verification should be a notification of power outage from the power company such as website updates, text notifications or other methods used by the company.
Impacted households can request replacement benefits by:
Submitting a fully completed and signed Request for Replacement Due to Loss of SNAP Benefits form (SFN 270) within 10 days of reporting a loss by uploading it to the Self-Service Portal (SSP), by emailing it to applyforhelp@nd.gov, or returning it to a human service zone office.
Contacting the Customer Support Center by email at applyforhelp@nd.gov, phone Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. CT at (866) 614-6005 or (701) 328-1000, 711 (TTY) or mail to Customer Support Center, P.O. Box 5562, Bismarck, ND 58506.
The program will replace the amount of the loss up to the monthly benefit amount. For example, if a household reports a food loss of $250 and the household received $300 in SNAP benefits for the month, $250 in replacement benefits will be issued once the loss is verified.
The maximum replacement amount cannot be more than one month of the SNAP benefit amount the household received. People with questions can find information online at hhs.nd.gov/applyforhelp/snap or by contacting the Customer Support Center or a human service zone office.
North Dakotans who were impacted by the recent disaster and maybe struggling or in crisis, can find help through the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.
Residents can also find help through 2-1-1 FirstLink, which provides confidential support and referrals for essential needs such as food, housing, utilities, transportation and more by visiting FirstLink’s Database or calling the 2-1-1 Helpline for 24/7 assistance.