Massachusetts P-EBT

PROBLEM: In March 2020, when school buildings closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many students who relied on school meals were left without support. Weeks later, Massachusetts received approval from the federal government to provide families with funds through the USDA’s National School Lunch Program that traditionally fund in-school meals. The mechanism for providing these funds to families was called Pandemic-EBT (P-EBT), and it followed the same methodology as traditional the traditional SNAP program. To cover missed school meals from March through June, students received $400 in funds on existing SNAP EBT cards or on new P-EBT cards. However, many students were unaware that this money was available to them, and many cards mailed out to students initially were not activated. And because this was a new program, there was no playbook for success.

PARTNERS: We partnered with the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA), Project Bread, and the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute to develop a toolkit and playbook for ensuring every student in Massachusetts who received P-EBT funding knew how to utilize it.

SOLUTION: Together, we created a website called MAP-EBT.org with information for families on accessing P-EBT and resources for city and community leaders to help them spread the word about these funds. We developed outreach materials, flyers, email templates, robocall scripts, and social media campaigns, and we shared these materials with far-reaching community groups. We collected polling data on food insecurity in a dozen target cities across Massachusetts and generated local and statewide media attention on both the problem and the opportunity provided by P-EBT funding. And we held webinars in multiple languages with mayors and nonprofit leaders to spread the word about how to access P-EBT.

ADOPTION: By the end of 2020, 84% of Massachusetts P-EBT cards were activated – the highest of any state in the country – and more than $253 million in federal dollars were brought into Massachusetts through the P-EBT program. Leaders from other states reached out about how we were able to accomplish this, and we held trainings and adapted our materials for other states to replicate our success nationwide.