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Hunger Solutions Minnesota - May 2023

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P-EBT Helps Families Afford Food 

The Minnesota Department of Human Services recently announced that P-EBT benefits are being issued to students eligible for free and reduced-price school meals who experienced a COVID impact during the 2022-23 school year. Students will receive $8.18 for every day they were out of school due to COVID. The first round of payments were issued starting this week, covering COVID-related school absences from September 2022 to March 2023. Additional rounds of payments in July and August will cover the final months of the school year and summer P-EBT payments. For more on who is eligible for P-EBT, visit the DHS P-EBT website.

For school-age students, P-EBT payments are being made to the white Minnesota P-EBT card. If the student already had a card from an earlier round of P-EBT, the benefits are being put on that card. If that card has been lost or stolen, call the EBT Edge Service Center at 888-997-2227 to replace the card. For families with kids 5 years old or younger, the P-EBT payment will appear on their regular SNAP-EBT card.

New for this round of P-EBT, homeschooled and virtual learners are now eligible for P-EBT benefits if they switched to homeschool or virtual school because of concerns about COVID. Families must 1.) be income eligible for free and reduced-price school meals and 2.) apply with their school district to access the benefits. If you or a family you serve has questions about their particular situation, they can call the P-EBT Hotline at 651-431-4608 or 1-833-454-0153

Grant Final Reports Due July 15th, 2023

If your organization received the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant in May of 2022, the 2022 Annual MFSP grant, or the 2022 Cultural Collaboration Grant - there are some important grant due dates coming up for you to be aware of. 

All funds for both the ARPA and MFSP (and Cultural Collaboration) grant MUST be completely expended by June 30th, 2023. When you have expended your funds, you are required to submit a final report to Hunger Solutions that documents how the grant was spent.

Final Reports for each grant are due on July 15th, 2023. All grantees must submit a final report for each grant that they received. Failure to submit a final report may result in ineligibility for future funding. 

Open Your Heart Summer Challenge Application 

The Summer Challenge grant allows food shelves across Minnesota to participate in a fundraising challenge for a proportionally matched grant of up to $4,000.

During the month of July, food shelves leverage this opportunity to fundraise and in turn receive a proportionally matched grant award. Grant awards are based on how many food shelves participate and how much each food shelf raised in July with a minimum grant award of $150 and a maximum grant award of $4,000.

Reminder: Any time there is a change to your organization, including staff changes, contact information, address, hours of operation, etc., please email: srobinson@hungersolutions.org