Good News!Below is the link to the Press
Release regarding the P-EBT program that The New Mexico Public Education
Department (PED) and the Human Services Division (HSD) has collaboratively
worked hard with the United States of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition
Service (FNS). We received approximately $97 million dollars for
over 245,000 students. We are working on collaborations with HSD and
Superintendents to get this information out quickly to families across New
Mexico.
In summary, free and reduced
eligible families need to know the following:
- Families currently on SNAP benefits will see
additional funds on their current EBT account by the end of the month. HSD will
disburse these funds.
- Families of students that were receiving free
and reduced lunch or attend a Community Eligibility School (CEP) or
Provision 2 school where all students eat free, will receive a P-EBT benefit card
in the mail. HSD will mail the P-EBT cards to the student addresses reported to
PED via STARS in early June.
- Families who’s income has changed due to
Covid-19 can reach out to School Food Authorities (SFAS) to fill out a new
application to see if they can qualify for free and reduced meals which would
allow them to get P-EBT until June 19, 2020 from the date of the household
application certification. This process is only applicable to SFA’s and school
sites that receive student applications (Standard school sites only). CEP and
P2 school sites do not have to do this. Please certify these
applications and get the data from the household application in the excel
format that is attached and email it to [email protected]
and [email protected].
PED will ensure to get the data to HSD to get families P-EBT benefits. We don’t
anticipate SFA’s will get many applications. Sometimes, the data from your
application software systems will pull the data in different formats or this is
completed by a manual process. If you can get the data in the attached format
to us by Friday of each week and have most fields filled out, that would be
extremely helpful. Most of the data points are in the household application
templates you currently use. We will ensure to get the data to HSD so families
can utilize these supplemental P-EBT funds. We are aware of the extra work this
may cause and you already all are working really hard. Please try and help
these families if possible. You only have to collect applications if you
receive them until June 15, 2020 if applicable.
- Districts and school sites still need to serve
meals until the end of their scheduled school year and do their best to serve
meals in the summer via SSO or SFSP. All students and children can
currently still pick up breakfast and lunch meals offered.
Thank you all for hard work. I
have gone to a couple of sites and the meals you are serving are great and
families really appreciate the hard work. This has been a long haul for us all
but, well worth it. Thank you and I hope you are well and safe.