The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources and the West Virginia Department of Education have received approval from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to issue P-EBT benefits to eligible children this summer.
School-age children are eligible if effective May 31, 2021, they were enrolled in a school that participates in the National School Lunch Program in school year 2020-21 and qualified for free or reduced-price school meals. Children under the age of six are eligible if they are in a household that receives Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
Benefits will be loaded onto existing P-EBT cards that were issued during the 2020-21 program year. The state will not utilize the Mountain State card for summer P-EBT.
The state will issue a one-time benefit of $375 per child to each eligible child. Benefits are scheduled to be released mid-July. West Virginia estimates that it will issue $83.4 million to approximately 222,395 school children and $13.3 million to approximately 35,463 SNAP-enrolled children during the 2021 summer period.
New students enrolling in schools this fall that were not students in school year 2020-21 are not eligible for this year’s summer P-EBT. Guidance on P-EBT for the upcoming school year has not yet been issued by the USDA, but these details will be shared publicly as soon as the information is available.
For more information or support, please visit www.wvpebt.org, call the P-EBT hotline at 304-756-KID1 (5431), or email wvpebt@k12.wv.us.
