I got a little surprise in the mail on Monday. My son received a P-EBT card. I was not expecting this nor did I know what it was. After doing some research, I found out what this was all about!

At first, I thought this had something to do with SSI or was pandemic related in some way. Well, I was half right. 😂

When I signed my six year-old son, Liam, up for school last summer, I remember something coming in the mail that said something about school lunch being complimentary. I was like ok, wow, that's cool. I never filled out a form nor was I even asked to fill out a form, so I didn't know how lunch was being paid for.

After watching a video and doing some asking around I found out that Pittsfield Public Schools are part of the CEP program.

WHAT IS CEP?

The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a non-pricing meal service option for schools and school districts in low-income areas. CEP allows the nation’s highest poverty schools and districts to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students without collecting household applications. -fns.usda.gov

So, any school district that is CEP, enrolled students will receive two P-EBT cards this summer, each equaling $195.00. So, any student that is eligible for a P-EBT card will get a total of $390.00 in meal assistance this summer.

Basically, due to the pandemic, P-EBT stands for Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer, the free meal program extends through the summer months, so to speak.

The U.S. government will send one card in July, the other in August.

For more information on who else qualifies for P-EBT can go to mass.gov