Families Who Receive Free or Reduced Lunch Eligible for Retroactive Benefits

Monday, March 15th, 2021 -- 9:06 AM

(WMTV) Families whose children normally received a free or reduced lunch at school, but haven’t because of the pandemic, will be able to gain retroactive benefits.

The Department of Health Services’ explained eligible families will start seeing notifications and benefits as soon as by late March or early April.  Congress authorized the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Services to renew the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer Program in the December 2020 stimulus package.

The Wisconsin Dept. of Health Services noted more than 350,000 families received benefits from this program during the last months of the 2019-2020 school year.

These benefits will cover the months of August through November of 2020 if a child was eligible during that time period, DHS said.  DHS explained families who have an active QUEST card will have their benefits show up on there, otherwise families will receive a dedicated card.

Families will receive a letter in the mail about their checks automatically if they have a child who is already enrolled to receive free or reduced price meals at a school that participates in the National School Lunch Program; and the child’s school responded to a survey sent out by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and reported that students in the child’s grade attended class from home full or part time during certain months of the 2020-2021 school year; and the child’s family currently receives benefits from another state program like BadgerCare Plus or FoodShare.

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