New Guidance Will Provide More Emergency Food Aid Benefits for Wisconsin Families

Tuesday, April 27th, 2021 -- 1:00 PM

(WMTV) New guidance from federal officials will provide Wisconsin families with an additional amount of emergency food aid benefits.

The Department of Health Services announced Monday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued guidance April 1 to allow all FoodShare benefit recipients to get the minimum amount of emergency benefits.

The state believes this change will provide over $75 million in benefits to over 411,000 households, up by more than $57.5 million than what was given out in February.  Secretary-designee of DHS, Karen Timberlake, explained the change will help more households.

Before this guidance was announced, DHS reports that emergency allotments were only provided to people eligible for the maximum allotment of FoodShare benefits based on their household size.

If they were already receiving the maximum, they received no extra benefits. Now, each household will receive no less than $95.  Households started to receive their extra benefits over the past weekend.

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