The United States continues to be under a public health emergency, because of this, funding for the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) program has been extended through the school year 2021-2022. Through P-EBT, families of eligible school children will receive temporary emergency nutrition benefits loaded onto an EBT card to purchase food outside of school. If a family already has a state EBT card, the benefit will be loaded on that card when possible. Otherwise, the benefit will be loaded on the child’s P-EBT card from 2020-2021. New P-EBT cards will be mailed to students who were not issued a P-EBT card last year or if the Department of Human Services (DHS) cannot match the student to a previous card for the 2020-2021 school year. DHS will use the PA Secure ID, the student's first and last names, and the student’s date of birth to perform the match. If all four fields do not match, a new card will be sent for the student.
Once the five (5)-day threshold is met at a school, students who are eligible for free or reduced-price school meals and attend the school will receive P-EBT benefits equaling $7.10 for each day they are away from in-person school for COVID-19-related reasons. Below is the schedule of when benefits will be available.
- 1st Qtr. (Sept. – Nov.) benefits late June 2022
- 2nd Qtr. (Dec. – Feb.) benefits mid-July 2022
- 3rd Qtr. (Mar.-May) benefits early Aug 2022
If families have any questions regarding the P-EBT Cards, those questions can be directed to DHS. The Columbia Borough School District Food Service Department does not have access to P-EBT card distribution nor the ability to replace cards. DHS has created a parent portal in its online application platform, COMPASS. This portal will allow parents to see if their child is eligible for P-EBT for the 2021-2022 school year based on the information that the school district submitted. The link to the parent portal can be found at the Department of Human Services or 1-800-692-7462. For those individuals with hearing impairments call 1-800-451-5886. There is also the P-EBT hotline at 484-363-2137.