Most Salem families will get up to $1,100 per child to buy food
Veronica Diaz squirts mayonnaise on her son Victor’s sandwich during a free summer lunch at Washington Elementary School on June 18, 2019 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
If you get an unexpected piece of mail with a South Dakota return address, don’t throw it out.
Oregon is mailing out payments starting Thursday to the families of about 450,000 children and teens across the state enrolled in preschool or public school to make up for free school meals missed during pandemic-related school closures.
About 39,000 children enrolled in the Salem-Keizer School District – nearly the entire student body – should receive the payments.
Families can expect three payments in July, August and September of up to $408 per child, the state’s Department of Human Services said.
Each payment is supposed to cover two or three months of missed school meals during the 2020-21 school year. The state said families will receive $136 for each month public schools were closed entirely, and $75 for each month when schools were operating in a hybrid of online and in-person classes.
Families already enrolled in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, also called food stamps, will see the extra money added to their existing cards. Those not enrolled will receive a debit card mailed from a South Dakota return address.
The money can be used to buy food and beverages at retailers that take food stamp benefits, which includes nearly all grocery stores, as well as many farmer’s markets.
The money is part of Oregon’s response to the pandemic and will be sent to every child who receives free or reduced price school meals. That’s true even if the child’s school offered brown bag meals while school buildings were closed, as Salem-Keizer schools did.
Free school meals are intended to ensure children from low-income families don’t go hungry and can focus on schoolwork. Children normally qualify to receive those meals based on their household income. But schools where at least 40% of students qualify for free meals can opt to offer the meals to all students, cutting down on paperwork.
Of the 65 schools in the Salem-Keizer district, 63 make free meals available to all, district spokesman Aaron Harada said.
Only Candalaria Elementary School and Straub Middle School don’t do so. That means families at those schools will only receive a payment if they normally receive free lunch at school.
More information about the program is available on the state’s human services website.
Oregon families who don’t normally get SNAP benefits will receive a card in the mail like this to cover school meals missed during closures. (Department of Human Services)
-Rachel Alexander
