Food assistance available to Centre County residents impacted by recent storm

Centre County government officials are sharing resources for those who lost food because of the recent power outages. Speaking Tuesday at the commissioners meeting, Commissioner Mark Higgins shared details about those resources.

Higgins said SNAP recipients can apply for replacement benefits up to 10 days after a disaster occurs, meaning Friday, May 9 is the deadline to apply. Recipients can contact the County Assistance Office or complete an affidavit online.

“The food bank has also made a generous offer to help people who aren’t even on their rolls to get some food replaced,” Higgins said, referring to the State College Food Bank.

Commissioner Amber Concepcion said for some people it’s “inconvenient” or “disappointing” to have to throw out a lot of food.

“For some people it’s a crisis,” she said.

Officials with the food bank say you do not have to be a current client to receive an emergency food distribution. Residents are asked to call ahead of time to give information like names and household size, but there are no other requirements besides living in Centre County.

Distribution hours are Mondays from 1-4:30 p.m. and Wednesdays and Fridays from 1-3:30 p.m.

Higgins also shared what lessons commissioners learned from the widespread storm damage.

“I think we might be a little more proactive after big storms in the future,” Higgins said.

Higgins said it took a long time until out-of-state crews came in to help restore power. In the future he said commissioners will work to get repair crews in sooner. He also said commissioners will likely take a look at improvements they can make locally.

“We’re probably going to take a look and chat with (Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency) about … Now that we’ve had 1,500 calls in a single hour, what do we need to do to make our infrastructure and software a little more robust to be able to handle surges of that magnitude?”

Centre County 911 said they had one of the highest call volume days in their history on April 29 when the storms happened. About 35,000 customers in the area were without power, many of them for days.