Two days after taking office, President Biden directed the USDA to boost benefits by 15 percent in the P-EBT program for school-age children in low-income families, and to include children under the age of 6. The expansion would aid millions of children, but only eight states are approved for P-EBT for this school year, which started months ago.
The USDA issued “guidance” to states on Friday on the parameters for the expanded program, a swift seven days after Biden’s executive order on economic relief to Americans. The increase is worth roughly $1 per day per child and is retroactive to the start of the 2020-21 school year. States are allowed to use “reasonable simplifying assumptions” in running P-EBT, which is intended to make up for the meals missed by children due to school closures.
“USDA strongly urges states to issue supplemental benefits to any child who has already received a P-EBT benefit under an approved [school year] 2020-2021 plan,” two USDA officials told state public nutrition agencies.
“Hungry children have waited long enough,” said Lisa Davis of the anti-hunger group Share Our Strength. “The actions taken today will make it easier for states to act quickly to ensure millions of children get the nutrition they need during this crisis.”
Congress created P-EBT in the early days of the pandemic, as schools closed their classrooms. Lawmakers reauthorized the program last fall, but it was more than a month — Nov 16 — before the USDA issued guidelines for this school year. Some analysts said the Trump administration, which wanted students back in the schoolroom, “slow-walked” the updated rules and made them more complicated. Others say states were delayed in submitting P-EBT plans to USDA because of never-ending debate over instructional methods — online, classroom or hybrid.
Massachusetts was the first state to win USDA approval, on Dec. 15, for P-EBT for this school year. Rhode Island and Indiana were approved in the final days of December. Illinois, New Mexico, Tennessee, Ohio and Vermont were approved during January. Puerto Rico also has USDA approval.
Applications are pending at USDA from 22 states.
The Food Research and Action Council urged states “to make full uses of the new opportunities provided by the guidance and to quickly submit their P-EBT plants to USDA,” said president Luis Guardia. “FRAC also calls on USDA to quickly approve states’s plans to ensure that families get the nutrition they need as soon as possible to mitigate the alarming spikes in childhood hunger caused by Covid-19.”
Some $10.7 billion in P-EBT benefits were distributed from last March through September, said FRAC. With the 15-percent increase, P-EBT benefits are $6.82 a day, adding $3-$4 billion to assistance this school year, said the USDA.
President Biden has asked Congress to extend through Sept. 30 the 15-percent increase in SNAP benefits that was enacted at the end of December and is to expire on June 30, and to put an additional $3 billion into WIC.
“Unfortunately, the package appears to have left out an extension of the P-EBT program,” said the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “Extending P-EBT could guard against food hardships this summer, and during future health emergencies or disasters if extended permanently.”