The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is issuing $413 million in food assistance payments to an estimated 1.1 million eligible children through the Summer Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer food assistance program.
Families of eligible children will receive a one-time payment of $375 on their P-EBT card. Through the P-EBT program, food assistance benefits are provided to North Carolina families whose children are eligible for free or reduced-price meals at school.
Summer P-EBT is available to North Carolina students who were eligible to receive free or reduced-price meals at school as of the last month of the school year and to children under age 6 who receive Food and Nutrition Services benefits.
In addition, children who apply for free or reduced-price meals or FNS in the summer prior to Aug. 31, 2021 and are approved may be eligible to receive the full summer benefit.
Those who become newly eligible will receive their benefit in late September or October.
“Children need access to enough healthy food every day to thrive and develop to their full potential, and that need doesn’t go away at the end of the school year,” said NCDHHS Chief Deputy Secretary for Opportunity and Well-Being Susan Gale Perry. “These benefits will help hundreds of thousands of North Carolina families buy groceries this summer.”
For more information on how to apply for free or reduced-price meals, please contact your child’s local school district. You can also check your eligibility for the program here.
