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State: $1.2 billion in post-Hurricane Irma food assistance distributed in Florida

Posted at 4:56 AM, Oct 31, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-31 04:56:57-04

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida officials say more than $1.2 billion in federal food assistance has been distributed around the state since Hurricane Irma struck in September.

RELATED:Photos of Irma | Cost of Irma up to $650M  | People may wait weeks for FEMA 

Department of Children and Families officials said in a news release that 937,000 applications have been processed for the Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Another 1 million households were provided with supplemental SNAP benefits and nearly 1.5 million households had their SNAP benefits.

Officials say this will help more than 7.2 million Floridians recover from Irma.

The department also announced that additional days for disaster nutrition assistance have been set for Nov. 7-9 in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

More than 6,000 agency staff have been deployed to assist in operations and administration of this federal program, including nearly 1,500 temporary workers.