Friday, February 13, 2026 | 05:25pm
The Tennessee Department of Human Services (TDHS) announced today that it received federal approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (USDA) to automatically issue replacement Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to households impacted by prolonged power outages caused by the January 2026 Winter Storm Fern in Tennessee. To deliver timely relief of replacement SNAP benefits, TDHS will automatically issue 45% of affected SNAP households’ January 2026 SNAP benefit amount beginning February 13, 2026, without requiring households to submit an individual food loss affidavit.