The Mississippi Department of Human Services and the Mississippi Department of Education have issued P-EBT benefits for the 2020-21 school year.
Approximately 185,000 Mississippi students will receive these P-EBT benefits because they were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch and attended a school that had a predominately hybrid or virtual schedule for at least one month the 2020-21 school year.
The amount that children eligible for 2020-21 school year P-EBT benefits will receive was determined by their school’s reported learning schedule during that year. The total 2020-21 school year benefit disbursement to Mississippi school children is estimated to be $116 million.
Summer 2021 benefits were issued in October. School year 2020-21 benefits will be loaded onto the same P-EBT card that the child received.
These are the benefit amounts children in the Louisville Municipal School District will receive for the 2020-21 school year, according to the P-EBT School list available at https://www.mdhs.ms.gov/pandemic-ebt-p-ebt/p-ebt-schools-2/. Only months with monetary amounts are listed. MDHS notes that the list may be subject to human error:
Eiland Middle School
Total: $185.04
August 2020: Hybrid - $61.38
December 2020: Hybrid - $61.68
January 2021: Hybrid - $61.68
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Fair Elementary School:
Total: $61.38
August 2020: Hybrid - $61.38
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Louisville Elementary:
Total: $185.04
August 2020: Hybrid - $61.38
December 2020: Hybrid - $61.68
January 2021: Hybrid - $61.68
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Louisville High School:
Total: $246.72
August 2020: Hybrid - $61.38
November 2020: Hybrid - $61.68
December 2020: Hybrid - $61.68
January 2021: Hybrid - $61.68
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Nanih Waiya:
Total: $185.04
August 2020: Hybrid - $61.38
December 2020: Hybrid - $61.68
January 2021: Hybrid - $61.68
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Noxapater:
Total: $185.04
August 2020: Hybrid - $61.38
December 2020: Hybrid - $61.68
January 2021: Hybrid - $61.68
Not all children who received a P-EBT card will receive School Year 2020-21 benefits. Some children only qualified to receive Summer 2021 benefits because their school operated a majority in-person learning schedule throughout the 2020-21 school year. Children who were not eligible for Summer 2021 benefits are not eligible for school year 2020-21 benefits.
This round of Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer assists families of children eligible for the National School Lunch Program, whose school’s predominant learning mode was either virtual or hybrid for one or more months of the 2020-21 school year.
Your child must have been approved for free or reduced-price lunch under the National School Lunch Program for the 2020-21 school year to be eligible to receive Summer 2021 or School Year 2020-21 P-EBT benefits.
While students in all Mississippi public schools received meals for no charge during the 2020-2021 school year because of USDA waivers, eligibility for P-EBT is limited to those students who would have been eligible for free or reduced-price meals under normal school meals operations as part of the National School Lunch Program. There are three ways that children were approved:
1. Children who receive SNAP benefits are automatically approved for free or reduced-price lunch.
2. In some schools, every child is eligible for free or reduced-price lunch every year under the National School Lunch Program. These are called CEP (Community Eligibility Provision) schools and include all schools in the LMSD for the 2020-21 school year.
3. Families who submitted an application form for free or reduced-price lunch for the school year 2020-21. Families who submitted an application received a letter stating whether their application was approved or not.
Completing an application for free or reduced-price lunch for the current 2021-22 school year does NOT make a child eligible for Summer 2021 or School Year 2020-21 benefits.
Based on USDA regulations, P-EBT funds can purchase any food for the household, such as:
· Fruits and vegetables;
· Meat, poultry and fish;
· Dairy products;
· Bread and cereals;
· Other foods such as snack foods and non-alcoholic beverages; and
· Seeds and plants, which produce food for the household to eat.
Households CANNOT use P-EBT benefits to buy:
· Beer, wine, liquor, cigarettes or tobacco
· Vitamins, medicines, and supplements. If an item has a Supplement Facts label, it is considered a supplement and is not eligible for SNAP purchase.
· Live animals (except shellfish, fish removed from the water, and animals slaughtered before pickup from the store).
· Foods that are hot at the point of sale
· Any nonfood items such as:
· Pet foods
· Cleaning supplies, paper products and other household supplies.
· Hygiene items, cosmetics
For more information, visit the P-EBT website with updated P-EBT FAQs:
https://www.mdhs.ms.gov/
pandemic-ebt-p-ebt/.
MDHS also has a P-EBT Call Center at 1-833-316-2423 with new extended hours of operation from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Friday.
