04/17/2021
The New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance today announced additional food assistance of more than $880 million to help New Yorkers with children who previously received free and reduced-price meals at school. The Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) program will provide eligible households with a total of about $420 per child, with school buildings closed for the remainder of the school year due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.
“For many low-income families across the state, free and reduced-price school meals provided a critical stop-gap that allowed them to avoid food insecurity,” Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance Commissioner Mike Hein said. “This temporary program will bring them some measure of relief by ensuring that parents have additional help purchasing healthy, nutritious food for their school-aged children during these unprecedented times.”
Roughly 2.1 million children throughout the state were receiving free and reduced-price meals before all school districts were closed starting on March 16. Under Governor Cuomo’s direction, the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) requested that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)provide food benefits to households with children who have temporarily lost access to these meals due to pandemic-related school closures. The federal Families First Act authorized states to apply for federal approval to operate Pandemic EBT programs.
Families will not need to apply for the program. About 1.3 million children living in households enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), receiving Temporary Assistance benefits or Medicaid will automatically receive the additional assistance through their existing EBT cards.
OTDA is also working with the state Education Department to identify an additional 800,000 children in households that are not receiving Medicaid, SNAP or Temporary Assistance, but are receiving free and reduced-price school meals. These families will be mailed a temporary EBT card along with instructions for activating the card and accessing their assistance.