Families of eligible children will get a food benefit to help make up for missed free or reduced-price meals at school.

The federal government has authorized the Vermont Department for Children and Families (DCF) and Agency of Education (AOE) to provide a temporary food benefit to preK-12 students who would normally receive free or reduced-price meals at school.

These benefits, called Pandemic EBT or P-EBT, will be based on the student’s learning model for the month:

• $119.35 for a remote learning month.
• $71.61 for a hybrid learning month (some days at school, some days remote).
• No benefit for an in-person learning month.

Approximately $14.7 million in benefits will be issued to 21,844 Vermont households for September 2020 through February 2021. This covers 33,066 students.

Eligible households will receive a letter explaining the benefit. All eligible households should receive their benefit by April 29th. Another benefit for March through June 2021 will be issued in July.

"A regular supply of healthy and nutritious foods is essential for the growth and development of our children,” said Secretary of Education Dan French. “This benefit will help ensure students have access to nutritious meals through the end of the school year.”

“We want to make sure no child goes hungry during this health crisis,” said DCF Commissioner Sean Brown.  “The P-EBT benefit will provide much-needed support to Vermont households that typically rely on free or reduced meals at school to feed their children."

How The Benefit Will Be Issued:

• Households that currently get 3SquaresVT on an EBT card may be issued this additional benefit on their cards.
• Other households will be issued special P-EBT cards.

P-EBT benefits may be used to buy eligible food items anywhere 3SquaresVT is accepted. Benefits will be active for a year from the date of issuance and are non-transferable.

To learn more, read these Frequently-Asked Questions.

Apply for free and reduced-price meals on the Agency of Education's website.