AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine parents may be wondering why they recently received a Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer card in the mail addressed to their children and whether they should use the funds.
The short answer is yes. It is a side effect of the federal government winding down its emergency COVID-19 response.
Families are free to use the funds loaded to the P-EBT cards, as the government determined their children were eligible to get them by way of attending eligible schools. The P-EBT program was created by federal legislation in 2020 to offer meal assistance to families whose kids had school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fast forward to 2023, and the program is winding down after the federal public health emergency ended in May. The Maine Department of Health and Human Services said in September it was distributing the final round of more than $166 million in food assistance to the families of more than 150,000 children.
Maine was authorized to distribute the final round of benefits to children younger than 6 years old as of Oct. 15, 2022, with the benefits issued Aug. 7, Sept. 5 and Monday, according to DHHS. School-aged children received benefits between Sept. 5 and Sept. 7, per DHHS.
Various sets of criteria applied to children depending on their age and whether they attend a traditional school versus a home school or virtual school. One factor was whether a school qualifies for the National School Lunch Program, which provides low-cost or free meals to kids. That meant children could receive P-EBT cards even if their families make too much money to otherwise qualify for federal assistance.
The average monthly P-EBT benefit ranges from $40 to $120 per child, depending on whether the child’s school was partially or fully remote. P-EBT cards were given to each child not otherwise receiving SNAP benefits. The P-EBT program is separate from SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
State and federal officials have advised parents who do not wish to use the cards to simply throw away or destroy them. It is against the law to give the card or benefits away to someone else to use. Officials in several states have also told parents to make an equivalent donation to a local food pantry if they do not wish to use the P-EBT benefits.
If families do not use the P-EBT cards for nine months or longer, then the benefits will be removed or expunged. To set up a PIN to use the card, families should call the 800-477-7428 number on the back of each card and enter their child’s date of birth along with the last four digits of their Social Security number. If a child does not have a Social Security number, parents should enter 9999.
Families can visit maine.gov/dhhs/ofi/programs-services/food-supplement to find out more information about the P-EBT program.
