Financial services technology leader FIS announced that it is supporting U.S. states and territories under the U.S. Government’s Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) to deliver needed lunch and food benefits to families of school-age children who have been impacted by school closures due to the current health crisis. In addition to distributing electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards that can be used by participating families for in-store or online grocery purchases, FIS is also providing processing and customer support services.
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Under the FFCRA, states and territories can provide Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) payments to eligible families of school-age children who would otherwise be receiving lunch benefits while in school.
As a leading processor of state-administered EBT benefits programs, FIS is currently providing prepaid cards and processing services to 16 states that have been approved to participate in the P-EBT program: Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Additional states are set to come online in the coming weeks.
“For families in need, the importance of providing nutritious lunches doesn’t stop just because their kids aren’t in school,” said Jim Johnson, head of Financial Institution Payments and Wealth at FIS. “FIS is committed to assisting U.S. states and territories to leverage the P-EBT program to ensure that families receive this critical assistance during the current crisis.”
In addition to its support of the P-EBT program, FIS has enabled sixteen states to provide online purchasing of food for more than 9 million households in the U.S. through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) under a pilot program run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For a full list of participating states in the program, visit https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/online-purchasing-pilot.
The FIS COVID-19 Online Resource Center provides continually updated information and resources on ways that FIS is supporting government, banks, small businesses and individuals during the current crisis.
