State to distribute more food assistance for kids

By Anna Del Savio
Oregon Capital Bureau

Oregon will send out $391 food benefit cards to thousands of families this spring.

The Oregon Department of Human Services will send out electronic benefit transfer cards for children who were eligible for free or reduced lunch in the 2021-2022 school year or were under the age of 6 and enrolled in SNAP in summer 2022.

The latest round of funds from the Pandemic-EBT program are retroactive, “meant to make up for limited access to school based food and nutrition programs in summer 2022,” ODHS spokesman Jake Sunderland said.

Statewide, 434,000 children will receive the benefits, totaling $170 million.

Between now and May, eligible children will receive a letter in the mail notifying them of their eligibility, followed by an envelope with their P-EBT card.

The additional lump sum comes after emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits ended. From April 2020 through February 2023, people who received SNAP benefits received an additional monthly benefit. Starting in March, the 720,000 Oregonians enrolled in SNAP only received their regular SNAP food benefits, averaging a 40% reduction in benefits.

Many families who receive free or reduced price school lunches also receive SNAP benefits, but SNAP enrollment is not a requirement for receiving the P-EBT cards.

The issuance of the $391 P-EBT cards was approved by the United States Department of Agriculture last October, but cards weren’t sent out until now, Sunderland said. The state was originally required to distribute those benefits by the end of February.

Oregon, like almost every other state in the county, received federal approval to operate a P-EBT program in each funding round from the start of the pandemic through summer 2022. But Oregon is not among the 19 states that have approval to operate P-EBT programs in the current school year or summer 2023.

Oregon last distributed P-EBT funds in fall 2022, for the 2021-2022 school year, but only young children in families enrolled in SNAP were eligible. In that round, roughly 80,000 children received a total of $46 million. Earlier rounds were also open to school-age children. Through the end of 2022, Oregon’s P-EBT program distributed more than $820 million in assistance.