THE Department of Community and Cultural Affairs-Nutrition Assistance Program, through the Public School System-Child Nutrition Program, will start the distribution of Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer or P-EBT benefits in August, NAP Administrator Walter Macaranas said on Tuesday.
Macaranas was among the DCCA officials who joined DCCA Secretary Joseph P. Deleon Guerrero in a budget hearing with the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Besides the proposed fiscal year budget for DCCA, which will be over $900,000 in local funds and over $800,000 in American Rescue Plan Act monies, the committee brought up other issues related to DCCA.
For his part, Macaranas updated the committee on the enhanced nutrition assistance program and the P-EBT.
Funded by the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2021 or U.S. Public Law 116-159, P-EBT provides food benefits to schoolchildren who lost access to school meals because of closures and reduced in-person school hours due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Macaranas said the NAP and PSS had to extend the deadline for the submission of application forms for the P-EBT to June 25 because many families that missed the June 11 deadline appealed for an extension.
Now that the deadline extension has passed, the applications are now being vetted, he added. It is not a tedious process, Macaranas said, but they need to validate the applications with school records.
A child must be enrolled in school to be considered for P-EBT benefits.
In an interview after the meeting, Macaranas said they received 5,502 applications for P-EBT. Because a single application may consist of more than one child, he said around 11,000 children will benefit from the program.
Because of the deadline extension, he said, distribution of P-EBT benefits will start in August.
Applicants, he said, can visit the PSS-Nutrition Assistance Program website and see if their verified application numbers are on the list.
A verified application, he added, essentially means an “approved application.”
Macaranas said applicants will be receiving calls if they have issues, and among the likely issues usually involve individuals who signed the application but are not the persons on the school records.
P-EBT benefits will be retroactive to the start of school year 2020-21 when schools opened in August or September 2020. It is estimated that a PSS school-age child could receive between $800 and $900 in P-EBT benefits for the entire school year.
Nutrition Assistance Program Administrator Walter Macaranas, center, listens as Division of Youth Services Administrator Vivian Sablan speaks during a budget hearing conducted by the House Ways and Means Committee in the House chamber on Tuesday. Also in photo are Department of Community and Cultural Affairs Secretary Joseph Deleon Guerrero, foreground, back to the camera, and Arts Council Executive Director Parker Y. Yobei, right.
