7/14/2023 0 Comments Ohio ebt card![]() ![]() “But there are opportunities to make benefit amounts significant permanently through a vehicle like a Farm Bill.” “This is challenging because we're fully aware that these benefits were never intended by Congress to be permanent,” Novotny said. She added although the organization is thankful for recent state funding approved for food banks help, policymakers should still consider strengthening its food assistance program. So that’s what we’re reckoning with,” Novotny said. And that’s while SNAP participants in Ohio have been getting $120 million more per month in benefits. “Just for our most recent quarter that we have data for, we served just shy of three million people in three months. ![]() Joree Novotny, the chief of staff at the Ohio Association of Food Banks, said with the state of inflation, the association expects its number of clients to increase, especially people on limited incomes. “We will be communicating to recipients, county agencies, and our partners such as food banks, that normal SNAP payment will resume in March,” Damschroder said. In a statement, Matt Damschroder, the director of Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, said the state department is working with local agencies to support them with what it expects will be a high call volume. The changes in funding means people enrolled in the program will only see their first monthly issuance on their EBT card beginning in March. The bill didn’t include money for SNAP emergency allotments.įor nearly three years, Ohio SNAP households have been receiving these benefits in two separate issuances - one toward the beginning of the month and one toward the end of the month. That will end next month after the federal government approved the Consolidated Appropriations Act, an omnibus budget package. Throughout the pandemic, over 1.5 million people in Ohio enrolled in SNAP have, on average, been receiving $90 more per person, per month. Department of Agriculture announced the changes recently, Ohio was one of several states participating in SNAP emergency allotments. While P-EBT ends in Ohio when the current school year ends, the free and reduced-cost lunch program remains.A temporary boost to SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps, will end after February. Several other states and US territories will continue with P-EBT programs past this current school year. Many states participated in the P-EBT program since 2020. More often than not, these students previously attended “brick and mortar” schools or in-person school and received free or reduced-cost lunch in those schools, but the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services application process will determine eligibility. “I think on one hand, from a public health standpoint, that’s a very good sign.” “Now the schools are back open, there’s a vaccine and all of those kinds of things, Congress has decided to end the pandemic portion of this program and other programs as well,” Damschroder said. Three years later, P-EBT is limited to students who homeschool or attend virtual classrooms because of COVID-19 concerns. “Children who are otherwise eligible for free and reduced lunch in school didn’t have access to those kinds of programs, so a short-term pandemic supplemental food program was necessary to impact child hunger,” said Ohio Department of Job and Family Services Director Matt Damschroder.įamilies that were eligible for free or reduced school lunches, which is a benefit provided to all Cleveland Metropolitan School District students, were able to use the P-EBT to buy groceries through SNAP, the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps). The P-EBT program was handled by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services with federal funding. P-EBT was created in 2020 to help cover the grocery costs of families in the state’s free or reduced-cost school meals program when schools closed and students were forced into virtual learning from home. Ohio’s P-EBT program will come to a close at the end of this current school year. Any approved applications will be paid out retroactively from August 2022. ![]() But time is running out.Įligible families can apply for P-EBT for the 2022-2023 school year until May 31. The current school year is almost over, but students who homeschool or still attend class virtually due to COVID-19 concerns can still take advantage of Pandemic-Electronic Benefit Transfers, or P-EBT. ![]()
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