Families missing free or reduced-price school meals have extra month to apply for funds
Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday that low-income families will have an additional month to apply for extra benefits to help cover costs of free or reduced-price meals that their children would normally receive at school.
Families now have until July 31 to apply to receive a one-time benefit of $285 per child under the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer, more commonly known as P-EBT.
Texas was approved last month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to operate the program, which allows families to receive additional benefits equal to the value of free or reduced-price meals that their children would normally receive at school before the pandemic led to closures. The original deadline to apply was June 30.
The P-EBT benefits can be used in the same way as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits. Receiving them will not affect a family’s ability receive other benefits, and families can still be eligible even if they are receiving free meals from their school district during the pandemic, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s website.
Families that qualified for the benefits were notified by their school districts in May, according to a news release.
Families with kids between the ages of 5 and 18 who received SNAP benefits in March — when schools were first closed — should have automatically received benefits by May 22 on their current electronic benefit transfer card, which works like a debit card and is known as the “Lone Star Card” in Texas.
Families who did not receive SNAP benefits, often referred to as food stamps, in March, but whose children were eligible to receive free or reduced-price meals for the 2019-20 school year, will need to apply to receive the benefits on a new EBT card.
Texans can visit hhs.texas.gov/pebt to learn more about the program, and can have their questions answered over the phone by calling 833-613-6220. The P-EBT Call Center is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.
A working phone number is important to include, as HHSC staff may need to contact families for additional information in order to approve applications, which are reviewed within 10 days of submission, according to HHSC’s website.
The Texas Department of Agriculture, Texas Education Agency and HHSC are working together to administer over $1 billion in benefits, and have issued nearly $700 million so far, according to a news release.
In the 2019-2020 school year, approximately 3.6 million children were eligible for free and reduced-priced lunch in Texas, or approximately 67% of kids in participating schools, according to a USDA news release.
“The extension of the P-EBT deadline helps ensure that Texans have time to apply for this program and provide nutritious food to their families as the state continues to combat COVID-19,” Abbott said in a statement Monday. “Ensuring access to healthy food in our communities is an important part of our response to this pandemic.”
This story was originally published June 29, 2020 at 2:26 PM.
