- Parents and guardians can check whether their child qualified for the latest P-EBT issuance at the VERIFY P-EBT Information section of the Human Services Department’s YesNM portal from August 4 to August 11.
For many families, school lunches can be a dent in finances. It is a small thing, but it adds up.
It is even worse if you still pay for a lunch that your kid isn’t even eating. Unfortunately, many families experienced this when they got COVID.
According to a study done last year 1.54 million students can’t afford their school meals. New Mexican families have around $166.48 in meal debt per child.
Now, that struggle is being recognized in NM.
K-12 students that missed free or reduced priced meals due to COVID-related absences received reimbursement from the state on July 31.
“The goal of this program is not just to reimburse families with school aged students who had to miss school due to COVID, but to help provide good nutrition to New Mexican families when they need it the most,” said Angela Medrano, deputy secretary for the New Mexico Human Services Department.
Approximately, $490,922.40 in Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) will be issued to cover meals for K-12 students who missed five or more days of school in February and March of this year due to COVID-19. The issuance amount is $7.10 per day the child was absent from school.
K-12 students do not need to be currently receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program food benefits in order to qualify for P-EBT.
Parents and guardians will be able to check whether their child qualified for the latest P-EBT issuance at the VERIFY P-EBT Information section of the Human Services Department’s YesNM portal from August 4 to August 11.
