Food Resources for Military Families with School-Aged Children

You may have seen the news today about Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) and SNAP expansion. Here’s the scoop: President Biden signed an executive order calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Congress to issue new guidance that allows states to increase the emergency benefits available via P-EBT and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to ensure school-age children have the food resources they need. This move may have a direct impact on your life or the lives of someone you know and care about – so spread the word.  

For military families, you may be eligible for P-EBT. P-EBT is a benefit created to provide support to families of school-age children who, due to school closures/virtual learning, no longer have access to free or reduced-price school meals. 

Your family is eligible for P-EBT if: 

• Your child would receive free or reduced-price meals if school was physically in session and they are learning via virtual or hybrid programs through the school district. (Homeschooled children are not eligible for the benefit.) 
• Your child’s school offers free school meals to all students. 

Your family may be eligible for P-EBT if: 

• You have lost your job or had a reduction in work hours or wages due to the pandemic. (Visit your state’s P-EBT webpage for more information.) 

Benefits are issued via an EBT card to help with the purchase of meals. Each state has its own plan for how to implement P-EBT benefits and how families should apply. Our friends and Military Family Food Insecurity Coalition partners at the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) built an interactive map to connect you to your state’s P-EBT page. It is important to note that each state is different! And, for military families, you apply in your state of residence.  

Depending upon where you live, there are also grab and go student meal sites that have been set up to distribute meals. You can use USDA’s Meals 4 Kids Site Finder to find a meal site near you. You should know that the P-EBT benefit is not meant to replace grab and go student meal sites – it is to supplement it. It also will not affect your ability to receive other benefits you may be entitled to receiving. 

We encourage you to learn more about these resources that may make it easier to provide meals for your school-aged children. You never know who you may be able to help by sharing this information, so please, spread post this blog on your social so that others can learn about these services. 

Last but not least, we humbly asked you to tell us how COVID-19 impacted your family. Please review the results from our survey here.