City and Council Put Up $100,000 for Storm Grocery Help. Here Is Who Qualifies and How to Get It.

Mayor Paul Young and Council Chairwoman Jana Swearengen-Washington announced up to $100,000 through the Memphis Cares fund to help households replace food lost during extended power outages. Residents who went more than 24 hours without electricity can call starting August 31.

How to get help: Residents who went more than 24 hours without electricity can call 844-444-4211 beginning Monday, August 31, 2026.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The City of Memphis and the Memphis City Council are making up to $100,000 available to help residents replace groceries lost during the extended power outages that followed the August 2026 severe storms, Mayor Paul Young and Council Chairwoman Jana Swearengen-Washington announced.

The money is being distributed through Memphis Cares, a community fund for families facing food insecurity, as a partnership between the city administration, the City Council, United Way of the Mid-South, and the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis. United Way is coordinating the aid through a network of partner community organizations, and will work with the Community Foundation to distribute the money.

The assistance is aimed at households with the highest need in the areas hardest hit by outages. According to the city, the funds are meant to help affected families replenish groceries and access food assistance after losing food they could not afford to replace.

Here is how it works. Beginning Monday, August 31, 2026, residents who experienced more than 24 hours without electricity can call 844-444-4211 to reach the Memphis Cares team and get information on how funding will be distributed. The line is the starting point for residents seeking help.

The relief was announced as Memphis Light, Gas and Water worked to restore service to remaining customers, with utility leadership telling those still in the dark that it could be several days before power came back. The August 2026 storms knocked out electricity across large parts of the city, and the number of customers without power fell into the tens of thousands in the days after the storms.

Why It Matters for Memphis

For a household living close to the margin, a multi-day power outage is not only an inconvenience. It is a refrigerator and freezer full of spoiled food that has to be bought again, often in the same week rent is due. Food assistance tied directly to outage duration is a practical response to a real and immediate cost, and the 24-hour threshold and the phone line are the details that determine whether the help actually reaches the people it is meant for. That is why the how-to matters as much as the headline number.

The Transparency Gap

Who holds the authority here. The announcement pairs the mayor''s administration and the Council, and routes the money through two private partners, United Way of the Mid-South and the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis. That structure matters for accountability: when public officials announce relief distributed through private nonprofits, the reporting on where the money went can move off the public ledger. Residents should be able to see the full picture regardless of which hands the money passes through.

What has not been disclosed. The announcement does not specify the source of the $100,000, whether it is city general funds, Council community grant funds, private donations to Memphis Cares, or a mix. It does not define the dollar amount per household, the total number of households the fund expects to serve, or the eligibility standard beyond the 24-hour outage threshold and highest need. It also does not address whether the relief connects to any MLGW accountability for the outages themselves.

Why the gap matters, and what we are requesting. Emergency relief is welcome, and it is also public business even when private partners distribute it. The 901 Report is requesting the funding source and amount, the per-household benefit and eligibility rules, and, once the program closes, the number of households served and the total distributed. We will report what those records show. The measure of relief is not the size of the announcement but the number of families who actually get help.

Your city. Your money. Your receipts.

Memphis Mayor and Council Put Up $100,000 for Storm Grocery Help. Here Is Who Qualifies and How to Get It.

Why It Matters for Memphis

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