HARLINGEN, Texas (KVEO) — Governor Greg Abbott announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved the second round of Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) food benefits for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHCS).
P-EBT benefits families with children who have temporarily lost access to free or reduced-price school meals due to COVID-19 during the 2020-2021 school year.
Applications open June 2.
Families may receive up to $1,200 for each child. The money may be used the same way as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food benefits to pay for groceries.
“The amount of the benefit is based on the school the child attends and is determined by the number of days that most students at that school received remote instruction during the 2020-2021 school year,” stated the press release.
In this second round of P-EBT, HHSC received federal approval to provide more than $2.5 billion in benefits to approximately 3.7 million eligible children in Texas.
P-EBT is for families that have children certified for free or reduced-price meals through the National School Lunch Program, and families with children born after Aug. 1, 2014, that receive SNAP food benefits.
Families need to apply for P-EBT if they received SNAP benefits for the first time during the 2020-2021 school year in May or June 2021 and have children born on or before Aug. 1, 2014.
The following items are required on the P-EBT application:
–Parent or legal guardian name, date of birth and sex
–Physical address
–Child’s information(name, date of birth, sex, school district county, school district and campus name)
–Applications for public school students must provide either the student’s Social Security number or state-assigned number (S-number)
Visit hhs.texas.gov/pebt or call the P-EBT Call Center at 833-442-1255 to learn more.
