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Updates for local agencies, community-based organizations, and providers who provide assistance to members of Wisconsin's health and nutrition public assistance programs.
Wisconsin to Issue Benefits to Children Missing Free or Reduced Price School Meals Because of COVID-19 Pandemic
DHS is working in partnership with the Department of Public Instruction, the Department of Children and Families, and schools across the state to implement the program for the 2020-2021 school year
Families across Wisconsin will get help feeding their children who usually get free or reduced price meals at school but haven’t this year because of the pandemic. In the December stimulus package, Congress authorized the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to renew the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer program, or P-EBT, for the 2020-2021 school year. Wisconsin’s plan for providing benefits has been approved by FNS, and eligible families will begin seeing notifications and benefits in late March and early April. Benefits will be provided retroactively to the beginning of the school year. More than 350,000 families received P-EBT during the final months of the 2019-2020 school year.
“COVID-19 has disrupted Wisconsinites’ lives, budgets, and educational plans for a full year now,” said DHS Interim Secretary Karen Timberlake. “The Pandemic EBT program will provide much-needed economic and nutritional support to families that need it the most.”
Many families will be notified of their eligibility in late March and early April.
View the entire news release.
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