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

Waterbury, VT-The federal government has authorized the Vermont Department for Children and Families (DCF) and Agency of Education (AOE) to provide temporary food benefits to students (Pre-K to grade 12) who would normally receive free or reduced-price meals at school.

These benefits, called Pandemic EBT or P-EBT, are based on the student's learning model for the month - from March to June 2021:

• A full benefit of $119.35 for a remote learning month.
• A partial benefit for a hybrid learning month: $38.19 in March, $37.51 in April, $33.42 in May, and $30.69 in June.

Eligible children will also receive a one-time benefit of $375 for the summer. To be eligible, children must have been:

1. enrolled in a school offering the school meals program as of June 2021, and
2. eligible to receive free/reduced-price meals at school.

Children who were enrolled in school as of June 2021 but who had not yet applied for free/reduced-price meals may still get the summer benefit by submitting a school meals application by August 16, 2021. This includes students who graduated in June. Contact the student's school to find out how to apply.

To learn more, read these Frequently-Asked Questions.

Eligible households will get a letter explaining the benefit, and all eligible households should receive their benefit by July 30, 2021.

Approximately $20.4 million in benefits will be issued to 26,343 Vermont households for March through August 2021. This covers 39,551 students.

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