At the onset of the pandemic, the government settled on debit cards for families as a way to provide food to students who qualify for free or reduced lunch but weren’t attending school – or the cafeteria – in person.
The cards would be loaded with government funds, which families could use to purchase and prepare their own school lunches.
Due to a delayed rollout, however, the benefits did not reach some Hamilton County families until the end of the school year, meaning some families are getting hundreds of dollars worth of make-up payments now.
It also means some low-income or food insecure households went for months without the benefits they were entitled to under the program, known as Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer or P-EBT.
Area parents that qualified for the program began receiving cards in April for the third round of the program, which covers October through the end of the school year. Funding for the program comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.