Temporary Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) Program issued more than $70 billion in benefits from 2020 to 2023

USDA’s temporary Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program issued $70.9 billion in benefits from its inception in March 2020 through September 2023. Federal legislation passed in March 2020 authorized USDA to create the P-EBT program at the onset of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in response to disruptions to onsite instruction at schools and the operation of the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. The P-EBT program provided benefits to qualified households with children in the 50 States, Washington, DC, and U.S. territories for the value of school meals that were forgone because of pandemic-related disruptions. These benefits could be used to help pay for groceries at retailers authorized to accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Initially, P-EBT program eligibility was limited to households with school-aged children eligible for free or reduced-price school meals (those with incomes up to 185 percent of the Federal poverty line). Subsequent legislation increased the amount qualifying households received and expanded the program to include more children (such as some households with children not yet enrolled in school) and to cover the summer months when schools typically are closed for instruction. Legislation also extended the program’s operations through September 2023. P-EBT benefits were distributed at different times, depending on pandemic-related disruptions to in-person instruction at schools and the timeliness of when States and territories were able to issue benefits. This chart appears in the USDA, Economic Research Service’s The Food and Nutrition Assistance Landscape: Fiscal Year 2023 Annual Report and Amber Waves article, USDA’s Temporary Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) Program Issued $70.9 Billion in Benefits From 2020 to 2023, and was discussed in a recorded webinar.

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