Michigan — The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) began automatically issuing food assistance benefits to more than 800,000 Michigan children through the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer program, which is similar to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Families who are eligible for the benefits don’t need to apply and should receive the added benefits automatically to their Bridge cards if they are already enrolled in the SNAP program or through the mail in the form of a Pandemic-EBT card.
The benefits are around $127.53 monthly for each child who is enrolled in a school that is fully virtual, and $77.06 for kids in schools that are functioning on a hybrid model.
The benefits are available to families with students ages 5-18 enrolled in the Michigan Department of Education program for students eligible for free or reduced-price school meals, and the goal is to ensure that no child in the state goes hungry during the pandemic.
Governor Whitmer said, “[K]ids who don’t go to school five days a week have a harder time accessing the free and reduced-price meals available to them at school. Pandemic-EBT closes this gap, giving our children another option for accessing nutritious food.”
Reporting for WGRT – Jessie Wiegand
