By The Star Staff
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia announced Monday that a disbursement of $40.5 million will be made to support the feeding of families with eligible students during the summer, as part of the Pandemic EBT (P-EBT) summer program.
“The positive impact of this program on the nutrition of our students and families in Puerto Rico is unquestionable,” Pierluisi said at a press conference.
“We have disbursed more than $1 billion to support nutritional assistance for our children since February 2021,” he added.
The governor said the program has benefited more than 300,185 students from public and private schools, which is equivalent to some 185,00 families participating in the Nutrition Assistance Program (PAN by its Spanish acronym) and another 40,000 that are not participants in the program.
“These funds also generate more than $1 billion in economic activity in the food supply chain in Puerto Rico, benefiting families of diverse socioeconomic levels and our economy in general,” Pierluisi said.
The chief executive also noted that families entering the program for the first time will receive a Family Card in the mail with the benefits already scheduled. Those families who have already received the benefit previously and have kept the Family Card only have to fill out the application and the benefit will arrive by transfer to the card in 48 to 72 hours.
For families who are not PAN participants, a P-EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) link has been enabled at pr.gov to receive applications virtually starting today. In addition, the resources of the P-EBT summer program can be used for the purchase of unprepared food in the more than 3,000 PAN-certified stores and in the Family Markets.
“The well-being and health of our families and students is always one of our top priorities,” the governor said. “I am proud of the success of this program and the agile and efficient disbursement of these funds directly to our students and I congratulate the Family Department and ADSEF [Family Socioeconomic Development Administration] for the work they continue to do.”
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