As the nation first faced the novel coronavirus pandemic, school closures and virtual learning became the norm. While this makes sense in terms of public health, the pivot away from in-person school threatens to leave many vulnerable children hungry. As Daily Kos previously covered, schools are handling this issue in a number of ways. Some are able to access emergency state funding to make the free lunches available to-go (so they’re safer than cramming kids together for a meal) as well as having meals available at a number of locations families can get to (a school pick-up may be difficult without a school bus route, for example). However, those solutions aren’t consistent, and they can’t reasonably help every hungry kid.
One new solution? The Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program, which adds the value of free breakfasts and lunches to EBT cards, coming in at $5.70 per school day, as reported by Civil Eats. As some states including West Virginia and Delaware are reporting, if your family has an EBT card already, the value will be added to it, and if you don’t already, a card will be mailed to you. To-go meal services are expected to continue, as well.
Letting families purchase their own food is inarguably a good thing. As we know, meals provided by schools aren’t always the healthiest, to begin with. Food autonomy is also empowering, especially in a time where people may finally have more time at home to experiment with cooking. Having extra groceries on hand that your family actually likes can also make things like meal prep easier.
If anything should change about this, the amount should go up. We know that with skyrocketing unemployment numbers, people are turning to community resources, like food banks, with an understandable frequency. Not to mention the number of people worried about being able to pay rent or even get enough diapers. Another concern is that not every family has a permanent, stable housing situation, so receiving a card in the mail may be tricky. It would also be ideal if people could use these funds for online grocery orders, which a handful of states already allow SNAP recipients to do.
As of now, Arizona, Alabama, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Mexico, Michigan, Oregon, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Virginia received approval from the USDA to implement these plans, as reported by Civil Eats. That’s s16 states so far. After federal approval (the program uses federal funding), states implement plans on a state-by-state basis. The outlet reports that a spokesperson for the USDA noted that P-EBT is “required, by law, to serve both SNAP and non-SNAP households” that meet eligibility needs.
So, how is this shaking out in each state? In Alabama, it’s $28.50 per child, per week. In North Carolina, it’s $250 total per child, available in two installments. In Oregon, families already eligible for EBT will have P-EBT benefits deposited on their cards for March, April, and May at the end of each month. In Massachusetts, families in school districts that offer universal free lunch will also receive P-EBT funds, according to MassLive. Yes, even families whose income exceeds normal qualifications—the logic being that the virus is impacting the economy so strongly, drastic income changes may have happened, or may happen, at any time. The cards, like standard EBT cards, are eligible at grocery stores and related food suppliers.
Related to food shopping, it’s also good to leave WIC-eligible items on the shelf when you can. While there’s some variation in what individual families can purchase with WIC, you can easily check for the WIC label and choose another product; for families who rely on WIC, someone bulk-buying the brand that happens to be WIC-eligible might mean they literally go home empty-handed.