FRAC Chat

Recently released data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) shows that the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program provided a total of $10.7 billion in nutritional assistance to eligible families with school-age children between April and September 2020. When schools shuttered last spring in response to the pandemic, 30 million children lost access to free and reduced-price school meals. In response, Congress created P-EBT through the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.  

At the beginning of March, I joined FRAC’s child nutrition team as a Bill Emerson Hunger Fellow. Two weeks later, schools across the country were closing, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and my team started working to ensure students and their families had access to meals during this unprecedented time. Schools and community partners started offering meals through a variety of models, but families needed more. In its second response package, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, Congress authorized the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program.