Tennessee families have until Friday at 4:30 p.m. Central Time (5:30 p.m. EST) to apply for a food assistance program made available during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a news release from the Tennessee Department of Human Services.
Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) benefits help provide food for children by giving parents $5.70 in benefits per child for each day that child qualifies. The benefits can be used to purchase food at any establishment that accepts EBT or online with Amazon and Walmart.
To be eligible, children must receive free or reduced meals at school or attend a Community Eligibility Provision school. The program is designed to replace meals lost during the months of March, April, and May due to school closures, the release states.
TDHS initially launched the program on June 12 by providing the benefits to qualifying families that take part in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. These families already have an existing EBT card and P-EBT benefits were applied to those cards.
But families who do not currently receive SNAP or TANF need to apply for the program so TDHS can verify addresses and family information. After approval, families will receive a P-EBT card in the mail. The approval times can be delayed by inaccurate or incomplete information on the application, so families are encouraged to double check all names and addresses to make sure they match what their children's schools will have on file, the release states.
Families can apply for the program by visiting https://tdhs.service-now.com/relief?id=relief_registration. Applications can also be downloaded to be filled out in Spanish, Somali, and Arabic languages and emailed to P-EBT.DHS@tn.gov.
Those who need help completing their P-EBT application or have general questions about the program are encouraged to call the TDHS Family Assistance Service Center at 1-866-311- 4287. TDHS also partners with an interpreter service to provide instructional assistance to customers who call that number in their preferred language.
"Schools are a place for children to receive nutritious meals during the school year and unfortunately many lost access to those meals when their schools closed due to COVID-19," Tennessee Department of Human Services Commissioner Danielle W. Barnes said in the release. "Our P-EBT program has filled this nutritional need for nearly half of all students in the state of Tennessee and we hope to add to that total. Supporting families now will help us continue to build a thriving Tennessee."
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act authorized the U.S. Department of Agriculture to approve states for P-EBT. Approved state agencies can operate P-EBT when a school is closed for at least five consecutive days during a public health emergency designation when the school would otherwise be in session. Tennessee is among the more than 40 states that have received P-EBT approval, according to the release.
For more information, visit https://www.tn.gov/humanservices.