SALT LAKE CITY – Salt Lake City is supporting Utahns Against Hunger and other community partners in spreading awareness of the Pandemic-Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program by hosting an enrollment event on Friday from 4:00- 8:00 p.m. at the City and County Building.  The City will provide Wi-Fi, laptops, tablets, personal protective equipment as the effort seeks to reach 77,000 Utah households that need to apply for assistance by August 31.  

P-EBT will provide a one-time payment of up to $308 for each eligible child to families whose children were receiving free or reduced fee school meals on March 16, 2020. It is also available to families of any children attending a Title I school, which means the school has a majority of children eligible for these meals.

“We’re racing the clock to get as many eligible families signed up for this program as possible in less than two weeks,” said Mayor Erin Mendenhall. “We know there are families struggling to put food on the table as the impact of the pandemic continues to affect our community. We’re grateful that Utah is now part of this program to provide additional support.” 

The P-EBT program was created by Congress as part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to cover the cost of what would have been school meals provided between March and May. The Utah Department of Workforce Services is administering the program and accepting P-EBT applications from August 1-31 at https://jobs.utah.gov/covid19/pebt/index.html

Children in families that received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits on March 16 do not need to apply for P-EBT. These benefits will automatically be added to their monthly benefits. Parents of eligible children not receiving SNAP benefits on March 16 will need to apply for P-EBT. The use of these benefits does not impact the parent(s) or child(ren)’s immigration status. The public charge test will not consider P-EBT benefits.

“There are a lot of families that could really use these dollars to purchase food with this one-time benefit,” says Gina Cornia, Executive Director of Utahns Against Hunger. “We hope this event will be a resource for Salt Lake City families.”

P-EBT cards are accepted at any retail food store that accepts SNAP EBT cards and the benefits are also eligible for Double Up Food Bucks at farmers markets.

Friday P-EBT Sign Up Event:

• WHEN: Friday, August 21 – 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm
• WHERE: East side of Washington Square Park outside of the City-County Building, 451 South State Street  

For more information:

To find more information about the P-EBT application and other emergency food resources, visit: https://jobs.utah.gov/covid19/pebt/ and https://jobs.utah.gov/mycase/web/guest/pebt

See Salt Lake City School District’s Title I schools: https://www.slcschools.org/departments/title-i/title-i-schools

Individuals may reach out to Utahns Against Hunger at 801-328-2561 or the Department of Workforce Services at 833-940-2990 with questions.

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