When your refrigerator loses power, it takes only six hours, if that, for the food inside to go bad. So you can imagine the impact of the June 29 derecho.

Sangamon County Community Resources is using federal money for stores – Humphrey’s Market, Hy-Vee, and Ruler Foods – to put together packages of refrigerated food. Families who earn up to 200 percent of the federal poverty line are eligible to apply for $100 vouchers starting Thursday at the county public health building on South Grand Avenue East between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. That continues Friday, Monday, and Tuesday, while the vouchers last.

But there has to be enough food to go around.

“If they have already received a SNAP reimbursement,” said Community Resources executive director Dave MacDonna (pictured), “we ask that they not apply for this, because they have already been given reimbursement for food. And we’re trying not to duplicate services, so we are trying to reach as many people as we can.

“We’re not going to be helping everyone, because there were 40-50,000 homes affected by that storm in June, but we are going to be able to help 2,000 households.”