All Spokane Public Schools students set to get $120 apiece in grocery funds this summer
All students who attend Spokane Public Schools should find a grocery money card in their mailbox this summer – regardless of their income level.
Some families with students in the Spokane district this week reported receiving Pandemic-EBT cards in the mail with $120 loaded onto them. Each Spokane school district student in grades K-12 – including 2023 graduates – was eligible to get a P-EBT card sent to their home.
Starting in June, P-EBT cards were sent to the homes of qualifying children across Washington. The money on the cards may be used to shop at any grocery store, farmers market or food retailer that accepts regular EBT card payments.
“It’s to help families have access to food that they might not otherwise have during the summer months,” said Norah West, a spokesperson with the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.
Confusion has spread in the Spokane area among families who did not think they qualified for meal assistance, said Ellen Ramus, nutrition supervisor with Spokane Public Schools. This is because some people don’t realize the federally funded cards are being disbursed by the state.
“It’s not coming from the district,” she said. “We’re not sending out the cards. As a district, we only qualified because we are able to do free meals for all.”
Across Washington, upwards of 700,000 students were eligible to get a P-EBT card in the mail this summer. Students who qualified for free or reduced meals were eligible, as well as students who attend schools with a universal free meal program. That’s everyone in Spokane Public Schools.
“Hopefully people who didn’t expect or need the card will be able to figure out what to do with it,” Ramus said. “The funds are intended for the child named on the card. They can offset the grocery budget for the month. Or buy food and donate it to the food bank.”
P-EBT cards may be used at grocery stores, farmers market and some restaurants to buy staple food items, some non-alcoholic beverages, bottled water, plant seeds and more.
At the Spokane Farmers Market, shoppers who use P-EBT cards to spend money are eligible to get extra shopping funds as part of the market’s food access program. The management booth at the market will swipe P-EBT and regular EBT cards, and give shoppers tokens to buy food and plant starts from vendors. The market will match up to $40 spent with the card and double the amount in tokens.
Some restaurants who offer cook-at-home dishes – such as Papa Murphy’s Pizza – also take P-EBT and EBT cards.
The money for the P-EBT disbursal this summer was part of the fourth and final round of federal pandemic relief funding for food security assistance sent to Washington residents. Created in 2020, P-EBT gives extra food benefits to children who had limited onsite meals in schools and child care centers due to shutdowns in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Spokane’s universal meals program was continued in 2022, thanks to bipartisan legislation passed by state lawmakers that year. The law allowed for schools with a minimum percentage of low-income students to participate in the federal Community Eligibility Provision program. CEP funds no-cost, no-application breakfast and lunch programs in school districts that demonstrate need.
The 2022-2023 school year marked the final wave of P-EBT benefits because the federal COVID-19 public health emergency expired May 11.
Qualifying families who have not yet received a P-EBT card should see one arrive in the mail before summer’s end. Newly eligible children will be sent a P-EBT card, and those who received P-EBT benefits in the past will have new benefits deposited onto their existing P-EBT cards.
P-EBT benefits do not replace any free food programs already offered, such as summer meals.
Families can also sign up for text message alerts about the status of their child’s P-EBT by filling out a form on the state DSHS website at textpebt.dshs.wa.gov/.
For more information about P-EBT benefits, call (833) 518–0282.