Thanks to community efforts across the state, Nebraska now joins 44 states and the District of Columbia in participating in the Pandemic-EBT (P-EBT) program. P-EBT addresses the loss of food access for children during school closures by providing electronic benefits for food assistance to students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. 156,257 Nebraska children will now be able to receive up to an additional $281 in food assistance through this program created through the federal CARES act.
Eligibility:
- The program is open to families with children who were participating in the Free and Reduced Price meal program at their school during the 19-20 school year.
- Families who do not have access to the internet to apply online can call the ACCESSNebraska hotline at 800-383-4278 to apply or stop by participating food banks that can help fill out applications in person.
- Students enrolled in schools that participate in Provision 2 or the Community Eligibility Provision are eligible regardless of income level.
- P-EBT is available to children regardless of immigration status and will not be considered in immigration-related public charge applications.
How to Apply:
- Families already participating in SNAP will automatically have the funds added to their SNAP card and don’t need to apply.
- Families participating in the Free and Reduced Price Lunch program but not on SNAP must apply for the program at this Nebraska-specific website between June 22 and July 19. A P-EBT card will be issued to those families.
- Benefits will be issued twice, once between July 28-31 and another between August 15-19.
- Although Social Security Number is a field on the application, families will not need to fill this out to receive the benefit.
See this Department of Health and Human Service press release for more information. School districts should also be notifying families about P-EBT information and application assistance.
For questions on P-EBT, please contact Eric Savaiano at esavaiano@neappleseed.org or (402) 438-8853 ext 126.