*This is a special feature from the City of San Jose, Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services

In response to COVID-19 related closures, the Pandemic Electronics Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) and CalFresh programs have assisted hundreds of thousands of low-income families with food assistance benefits cards.

The California Department of Social Services, in partnership with the California Department of Education, began distributing P-EBT last summer to provide students and their families with additional food assistance services.

For many low-income students, school breakfasts and lunches fill a critical nutritional need.

According to the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA), the P-EBT program connects eligible school aged children with food benefits – equivalent to the value of meals missed due to COVID-related school and childcare closures.

Similar to a traditional debit card, CalFresh benefits and P-EBT cards can be used to purchase food at local grocery stores. Photo by Canva.

Established under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act in March, the USDA recently announced a 15 percent increase in the amount of daily benefit amounts to continue supporting low-income households last month.

“The announcement provides more food dollars directly to food insecure kids living in low-income households who are missing critical meals due to school closures,” said Stacy Dean, Deputy Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services of the USDA.

Additionally, participants in the CalFresh food assistance program will also receive food benefit increases, according to a KRON 4 article published last week.

In Santa Clara County, where over 1,500 people are signing up every month for CalFresh, a temporary 15 percent increase in CalFresh benefits will be available until June 30.

CalFresh food benefit amounts are distributed on a monthly basis and is determined by your income. To learn more, visit https://socialservices.sccgov.org/food-assistance/help-buying-groceries-calfresh-food for more information.

CalFresh Food, California’s name for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program (SNAP), is an assistance program that supports low-income families, and even those temporarily impacted, with food benefits that can be used at grocery stores, farmers’ markets, food outlets, and more.

Recently announced by Santa Clara County, CalFresh participants will receive a 15 percent increase from January through June 2021.

“We have multilingual staff that will help people figure out if they can qualify and get access to those benefits which provide people with an EBT card that allows them to buy some groceries of their own at the grocery store,” said Tracy Weatherby, vice president of strategy and advocacy for Second Harvest of Silicon Valley during a KRON 4 interview.

“And this is a really important systemic support for families that allows people to buy healthy foods at the grocery store.”

To learn more about the P-EBT program extension, visit www.cdss.cs.gov/pandemic-ebt.

If you are in need of food assistance, please visit GetCalFresh.org to request or call 1-877-847-3663 (FOOD) to connect with your County Social Services Officer.

You can also go to Second Harvest of Silicon Valley shfb.org/getfood or call 1-800-984-3663 and one of their Food Connection Specialists can help you find out if you qualify.