Wisconsin Approved to Operate Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer
Friday, April 24th, 2020 -- 9:06 AM
(Wisconsin Ag Connection) -U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced that Wisconsin has been approved to operate Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer, a new program authorized by the Families First Coronavirus Response Act which provides assistance to families of children eligible for free or reduced-price meals dealing with school closures.Under FFCRA, states have the option to submit a plan to the secretary for providing these benefits to SNAP and non-SNAP households with children who have temporarily lost access to free or reduced-price school meals due to pandemic-related school closures. Local agencies may operate Pandemic EBT when a school is closed for at least five consecutive days during a public health emergency designation during which the school would otherwise be in session. Wisconsin will be able to operate Pandemic EBT, a supplemental food purchasing benefit to current SNAP participants and as a new EBT benefit to other eligible households to offset the cost of meals that would have otherwise been consumed at school.
For the 2019-2020 school year, Wisconsin had approximately 414,000 children eligible for free-and reduced-priced lunch, or nearly half of the children in participating schools. USDA is working with states and local authorities to ensure schools and other program operators can continue to feed children.
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