DHHR To Issue Summer Benefits

With the federal COVID-19 public health emergency ending, West Virginia will issue Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) to qualifying K-12 students over the summer. This will be the final payment with CARES funds.

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) announced on April 5, that they have received approval from the United States Department of Agriculture to issue Summer P-EBT.

Devon Lopez is the associate director of customer and community success at Unite Us West Virginia. 

“Eligible students are going to receive $120, on either a new EBT card if they newly qualify, or if they’ve already qualified that will be preloaded onto that card, and it’s going to be a final of a continuation that we’ve seen of pandemic era benefits,” Lopez said. “We saw these implemented three years ago when students were at home and really extending those benefits COVID era benefits into the summertime to allow them to have additional ability to get resources and food.”

Lopez said pandemic-era benefits have built a foundation of assistance she hopes to see continue in the future.

“I think it’s really important to note that, it’s not that these problems didn’t exist before (the pandemic), they did,” Lopez said. “What we do know with COVID is that it did expose other critical needs that maybe others weren’t considering existed in the community. Hopefully we can now evaluate that data and those resources to understand what we can do to continue supporting in the long term.”

To be eligible, students must have attended a West Virginia school that participates in the National School Lunch Program, actively enrolled in the 2022-2023 school year on May 15, 2023, and qualify for free or reduced-price meals. 

All students who attend a Community Eligibility Provision school and receive free or reduced-priced meals also qualify for P-EBT.

The DHHR will mail an eligibility letter to each student who qualifies for Summer P-EBT. Students who qualify will receive a one-time Summer P-EBT payment of $120 to existing WV P-EBT cards in June 2023.

For additional information, visit the West Virginia P-EBT website or contact the P-EBT call center at 1-866-545-6502.