Dear Friends,

Come out and meet us at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, October 20 for the Night to Fight Hunger: Sights and Sounds of Philly. With its unparalleled view of the city's iconic skyline, stunning arboreal lighting throughout the picnic grove, lush green lawns, and garden accents, the Mann Center has been a top destination for Philadelphia music lovers ever since it was founded in 1930. It's the perfect setting for the Night to Fight Hunger, our reimagination of a traditional gala.

Policy and Advocacy

Universal Free Breakfast Program: Two weeks ago, Governor Wolf announced the creation of a Universal Free Breakfast Program for Pennsylvania school children in the 2022-2023 school year. This program, which will go into effect October 1, 2022, will allow all Pennsylvania children to receive a free breakfast regardless of their family’s income if they attend schools that participate in the School Breakfast Program. As families struggle with record inflation and other pandemic-related challenges, this program will help ensure that all Pennsylvania school kids have access to a healthy breakfast and will hopefully help families adjust to the loss of pandemic-related universal school meals. We are so excited that Governor Wolf has stepped up to support Pennsylvania families!

Summer P-EBT (Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer) Update: We’ve recently learned that Summer P-EBT issuances will be delayed, but will still be issued to eligible families! As a reminder, eligible K-12 students who were signed up for Free or Reduced-Price Meals (FRP) or who attended a school that participated in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) in the 2021-2022 school year were scheduled to get their summer P-EBT payment of $391 this month. These families will still get their P-EBT payments, but likely not until October. We will continue to update you as payments go out. Children who signed up for Free or Reduced-Price meals over the summer or children 0-5 who received SNAP at some point in June, July, or August will get their summer P-EBT payment at a later date. For more information about who is eligible for Summer P-EBT and when families will get their summer payments, see our website.

We’ve also heard that some families were issued a replacement P-EBT card with their child’s wrong date of birth, which prevents families from activating and using the card. This error will be automatically fixed when the summer P-EBT payment gets issued to the card. The date of birth will be corrected, and you will be able to activate and use the card. You do not need to request a new replacement card.

White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health: We are less than one week away from the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. The conference, which will take place on Wednesday, September 28 from 9am-6pm, and it will be livestreamed to ensure that everyone can participate. Visit the White House Conference website to see the agenda and sign up to receive the live streaming link.

Food Pantries & Soup Kitchens

Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen Leaders: Please join us for our next VIP (Victory in Partnership) meeting on Thursday, October 6th from 10:30am-12noon on Zoom. At that time, we will be highlighting some exciting changes to the Pennsylvania SNAP Program! To RSVP and receive the Zoom meeting link, please contact Tanya Sen at [email protected].