SNAP Coalition Zoom Call 10 AM Tues (4/14) and Pandemic EBT reminder

FoodSNAP
04/14/20

SNAP Coalition AGENDA: 

The agenda is subject to change, but currently includes:

  • updates on Pandemic EBT, DTA operations and other DTA issues
  • action for community group on P-EBT and bringing in newly poor families 
  • overview of Unemployment Insurance - what's going on in MA & the CARES Act rollout 
  • curbside pick up and EBT options with current MA systems
  • emergency food check in - see Boston Globe piece from this weekend with powerful data and info from the Food Bank of Western MA and Greater Boston Food Bank on massive need. 

Pandemic EBT & What you can do now

As we shared in our last eblast, MA has submitted a Pandemic EBT plan to USDA last week. Pandemic-EBT, or P-EBT - are extra food benefits for low income children. The DTA state plan has not been approved yet.  For more information on Pandemic EBT, including an overview of the program from MLRI, click here. 

We expect that families receiving SNAP will start to see P-EBT benefits on their EBT cards in the next few weeks. Non-SNAP families will likely receive P-EBT cards after that.  Families who are not getting SNAP but appear eligible should apply DTA Connect ASAP.  That way, they get both SNAP and P-EBT benefits.  The SNAP benefits for April will be the maximum SNAP allotment for the household size. 

We anticipate the value of the P-EBT benefit to be approximately $6/day per child, (or @ $30/week) for the days schools have been closed since March 15th. The P-EBT benefit will likely include the days of April school vacation week. 

We know that many families may not want to get SNAP or are not eligible (eg. ineligible immigrant families such as those pending an asylum decision, Dreamers, etc). We encourage school districts to continue to take and process NSLP apps so that newly poor families can get PEBT. Please be in touch with your local school district’s about a process for expecting new applications