P-EBT

Dear Parents and Guardians,

P-EBT, or Pandemic EBT, is a federal program that provides food supports to help families with children who were receiving free and reduced-price school meals pay for food. Families whose students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch started to receive P-EBT cards in the mail on Friday, May 29.

If you have any issues to activate your card, please follow the steps below:

How to Activate (PIN) a P-EBT Card

You will need the letter DTA sent you in the mail to activate the card.

The Massachusetts EBT vendor was not able to change the automated prompts you hear when you call to PIN a card, and unfortunately, some of the automated instructions are inaccurate for P-EBT cards. Instead, please follow the steps below:

• ​Call the EBT card phone number on the back of your P-EBT card: 800-997-2555.​

• ​Enter your P-EBT card number (it is an 18-digit number).

• You will then be prompted incorrectly to enter the last four digits of your Social Security number. Do not enter the last 4 digits of your Social Security number. For the P-EBT cards, you must enter the last four digits of your child's case number that was provided on the DTA letter you received in the mail.

• Then enter your child's date of birth using a two-digit month, two-digit day, and four-digit year (example: 04/06/2005).

For more information, visit: map-ebt.org. Questions? Call Project Bread's FoodSource Hotline at 800-645-8333.