P-EBT: Pandemic benefits for Hawaiʻi families to buy food
There’s a valuable new benefit available for Hawaiʻi families with children who are struggling to buy food. It’s called Pandemic-EBT, or P-EBT.
If your child was getting free or reduced-price school lunch during the school year, you are eligible for this extra assistance to buy food—up to $360 per child. Any household with children in Kindergarten through grade 12, that was eligible for free or reduced-price lunch at school, is eligible for Pandemic-EBT benefits.
The Hawaiʻi Department of Human Services will automatically send benefits to eligible families—you do not need to apply.
If your family is not already getting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, please look out for a card that looks like this in the mail, and do not throw it out after you’ve used it.
The P-EBT card will be in the name of the oldest child in your family, and benefits for all eligible children will be loaded onto the one card.
If you already get SNAP—also known as food stamps—the benefits will be automatically loaded on your Kokua EBT card.
You’ll have 180 days (6 months) from the date when you activate your P-EBT card, or the month when P-EBT benefits go on your Kokua EBT card, to spend your P-EBT benefits. You can buy SNAP-eligible foods with your P-EBT assistance.
P-EBT is available to any child who was getting free or reduced-price school lunch during the school year. It will NOT impact your citizenship or immigration status and NO social security number is required.
You can check your P-EBT status at pais-pebt.dhs.hawaii.gov. If you think you’re eligible and have not received benefits by July 20, or think you got the wrong amount of benefits, or need other assistance, please visit humanservices.hawaii.gov, e-mail hi.pebt@dhs.hawaii.gov, or call 2-1-1.
Below you’ll find a flyer with key information about P-EBT in multiple languages. For more details about P-EBT, see Hawaii Child Nutrition Programs (click on P-EBT tab) and the Department of Human Services.
