Families with children in free and reduced-price lunch program to receive EBT benefit

Reporter: Dannielle Garcia
Published: Updated:

If your child goes to public school you may be getting some money in the mail.

Since kids haven’t been in class for months, they missed out on a lot of free meals at school – meals parents had to pay for with kids remote learning.

But be careful, you could end up throwing cold, hard cash right in the trash.

Governor Ron DeSantis announced in May the federal approval of Florida’s Pandemic EBT Program (P-EBT).

The program will automatically issue benefits by the end of June to more than 2.1 million children who have temporarily lost access to free and reduced-price school meals during COVID-19-related school closures.

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act allows for states to issue P-EBT cards as a supplemental benefit for households with children who temporarily lost access to free and reduced-price school meals due to pandemic-related school closures. Families eligible to receive free or reduced-price school meals will automatically receive this benefit during the month of June, no further action is needed from recipients at this time.

The School District of Lee County said every student at public schools in the county qualify for the program.

The EBT card will have $313.5 ($5.7 per day for the 55 days school was closed) per child.

It can be used only on food and at places that accept SNAP benefits, like Publix, Target, Walmart, 7-Eleven, Trader Joes, and others.

DCF Secretary Chad Poppell said in May “This program offers automatic relief to families while ensuring children are not hungry during this crisis and allowing parents to focus on their family’s economic recovery.”

https://winknews.com/wp-content/uploads/PEBT-FAQ.pdf

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