To replace CalFresh food lost to a fire, flood, power outage, or similar household misfortune, you file the CF 303 CalFresh Replacement or Disaster Supplement Affidavit with your county welfare office. Report the loss within 10 days of the date it happened, then sign and return the completed CF 303 within 10 days of that report. The form is available on the California Department of Social Services forms page or from your county office.1California Department of Social Services. Forms and Brochures
What the CF 303 Covers
The CF 303 is a one-page affidavit (revised July 2024) with three possible uses: certain EBT card issues, food replacement after a household misfortune, and disaster supplement requests.2California Department of Social Services. Replacement or Disaster Supplement Affidavit (CF 303) For destroyed food, you’ll use the replacement section and mark “Food destroyed in household misfortune or disaster.”
Qualifying events include structural fires, flooding, broken refrigerators or freezers, extended power outages that cause refrigerated or frozen food to spoil, and comparable events like storms, earthquakes, or mudslides.3California Department of Social Services. California Manual of Policies and Procedures Division 63 – Coupon Issuance, Use and Replacement For power outages, a loss of electricity lasting at least four hours is the threshold widely applied by state agencies administering SNAP.
Filling Out the Form
For a food replacement request, the CF 303 asks for a short set of facts. Work through it in this order:
- Your CalFresh case number. It appears on correspondence from your county office and on your EBT paperwork.
- The names of everyone on your CalFresh case, not just the person signing.
- A short description of what happened and the date it happened. Be specific: a kitchen fire on a given date, a three-day power outage, a burst pipe that flooded the pantry.
- The dollar value of the food you lost. Estimate the actual cost of items purchased with CalFresh benefits only, not groceries bought with cash. The county replaces only the amount you report, and it cannot exceed one month’s allotment, so be accurate rather than conservative.
At the bottom, you sign a declaration that your information is “true and correct to the best of my knowledge.” The form warns that providing wrong or incomplete facts can result in disqualification from CalFresh, a fine, imprisonment, or all three.2California Department of Social Services. Replacement or Disaster Supplement Affidavit (CF 303) Keep a copy of what you submit.
How to Submit It
Once signed, you can return the CF 303 to the county several ways:4County of Santa Clara Social Services Agency. Available Emergency Assistance
- In person at your county social services office.
- By mail to the address on your county correspondence.
- By fax to the county office’s listed fax number.
- Uploaded through BenefitsCal, California’s online benefits portal.
- By telephonic signature. If you can’t physically sign and return the form, you can complete the affidavit over the phone with your caseworker, who records a telephonic signature.4County of Santa Clara Social Services Agency. Available Emergency Assistance
The telephonic signature option matters most during a disaster, when you may be displaced and without access to a printer or scanner. Call the county, explain the situation, and ask to complete the CF 303 by phone.
The Three 10-Day Deadlines
The replacement process runs on three separate 10-day clocks. Missing any of them can sink the request:
- You have 10 days from the date the food was destroyed to report the loss to the county by phone, in person, or in writing.5eCFR. 7 CFR 274.6 – Replacement Issuances and Cards to Households
- You have 10 days from that report to sign and return the CF 303. If the 10th day falls on a weekend or holiday, the county will accept it on the next business day.5eCFR. 7 CFR 274.6 – Replacement Issuances and Cards to Households
- The county must issue the replacement within 10 days of your initial report or within two working days of receiving your signed CF 303, whichever is later.5eCFR. 7 CFR 274.6 – Replacement Issuances and Cards to Households
The practical move: call the county the day the loss happens, even before you have the form. That protects your eligibility and preserves the full 10 days to complete and return the CF 303.
During major disasters, CDSS can request a waiver from the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service to extend the 10-day reporting window. Waivers are approved county by county and run for a defined period. If a disaster has been declared in your area, check the FNS disaster assistance page or ask the county whether an extended deadline applies.6Food and Nutrition Service. California Disaster Nutrition Assistance
What the County Will Verify
Before issuing the replacement, the county has to confirm the misfortune actually occurred. Verification can come from the fire department, the Red Cross, a utility company, or a home visit.5eCFR. 7 CFR 274.6 – Replacement Issuances and Cards to Households Widespread events like a neighborhood power outage or a wildfire are easier to confirm from public records and utility reports. An isolated incident, like a single-unit kitchen fire or a failed refrigerator, may require documentation from you, so hold onto anything a fire department, utility, landlord, or repair technician gave you.
How Much You’ll Receive
The replacement equals the dollar value of the food you lost, capped at one month’s CalFresh allotment for your household.5eCFR. 7 CFR 274.6 – Replacement Issuances and Cards to Households If you lost $150 in groceries and your monthly allotment is $234, you receive $150. If your loss exceeds the allotment, the replacement caps at the allotment amount.
One limit worth knowing: if a federal disaster has been declared and you already received disaster SNAP benefits under that declaration, you cannot also get a separate replacement for the same loss.
What the CF 303 Does Not Cover
The CF 303 replaces food that was physically destroyed in a household misfortune. It is not the right route for benefits taken through EBT card skimming or electronic theft. Congress ended the federal authority to replace electronically stolen SNAP benefits in December 2024, and as of October 1, 2025, SNAP agencies no longer accept new requests for theft-related replacements. The EBT sections on the CF 303 address a narrower situation: where the county or EBT hotline failed to cancel a reported lost or stolen card and an unauthorized person used it afterward.
If the County Denies Your Request
The CF 303 has a “Denied” section where the county records its reason. Typical reasons are missing one of the 10-day deadlines, failing to return a signed affidavit, or an inability to verify the misfortune.
If you think the denial is wrong, you can request a state hearing. The back of the CF 303 explains how.2California Department of Social Services. Replacement or Disaster Supplement Affidavit (CF 303) You have 90 days from the date of the written denial notice to file the request. At the hearing you can present evidence: utility company records of the outage, a fire department incident report, photographs of damaged food, repair invoices for a failed appliance. The copies you kept of the CF 303 and any documentation you submitted will matter here, which is why keeping them from the start is worth the small effort.