After five days of long lines, the Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program is coming to a close in South Florida.
The Department of Children and Families says additional dates may be announced at a later time.
“People that haven’t been seen and haven’t had the face-to-face and haven’t been approved will have another opportunity,” said Bronwyn Stanford, the regional director for DCF. “We are hearing the Governor has chosen to open this again.”
Between Wednesday and Saturday, DCF says they processed more than 112,000 applications.
If you currently receive food stamps, you are not eligible for the food for Florida voucher.
“They also have experienced some kind of loss,” said Bronwyn. “A lot of Miami-Dade residents were without power, so obviously a lot of them were without food for an amount of time. Maybe their wages were affected because their place of business was closed.”
The application centers were at Tropical Park, Miami-Dade College North Campus, South Dade Government Center and Amelia Earhart Park. However, police shut down the center at Amelia Earhart on Saturday, citing safety concerns.
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“They went in trampling over old ladies, people with kids. It was horrible,” said Yesenia Sanchez, who was waiting in line at Amelia Earhart Park.
Broward locations were also packed with tents and big turnouts. The Broward Sheriff’s Office shut down all distribution sites on Sunday due to unprecedented response and concern for safety.
DCF employees say further assistance is also possible later this month for Broward residents.
“It’s a long process, but it’s going to help out a lot for me and my family,” said Ewensia Igbinoba, who was standing in line at Miami-Dade College.
