If your child is newly eligible for PEBT for the 2021-22 school year, you will receive a new EBT card in the mail. It will not have any WV DHHR information on the envelope. Watch your mail for a white, window envelope with a Sioux Falls, SD return address.

Electronic Benefits Transfer, or EBT, is a system through which recipients of certain government benefits receive and spend funds electronically, using a plastic EBT card like a bank debit card. Benefits are deposited electronically into the recipient’s program account. The recipient can then use his or her EBT card to make purchases, which are subtracted from the account.

SNAP recipients can use their card to purchase food at any USDA authorized SNAP grocery or convenience store. If you qualify for SNAP benefits, you can use your West Virginia PEBT Card to:

Note: Stores will not give you change for SNAP benefit purchases. Only the exact amount of your food purchase is deducted from your SNAP benefit account.

Clients can call the 24-hour, toll free phone number 1-866-545-6502 for assistance to use the card, to obtain account balances and to report lost or stolen cards.

The benefits on your PEBT card are SNAP/Food benefits that are provided through the federal government Cares Act. The benefits are issued to help defray food expenses for children who would have received free or reduced lunches.

Eligible Food Items

Foods for the household to eat, such as:

• breads and cereals
• fruits and vegetables
• meats, fish, and poultry
• dairy products

Seeds and plants which produce food for the household to eat.

Non-Eligible Food Items

Households CANNOT use SNAP benefits to buy:

• Beer, wine, liquor, cigarettes, or tobacco
• Any nonfood items, such as: pet foods, soaps, paper products, household supplies
• Vitamins and medicines
• Food that will be eaten in the store
• Hot foods

Junk Food & Luxury Items

The Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (the Act) defines eligible food as any food or food product for home consumption and also includes seeds and plants which produce food for consumption by SNAP households. The Act prohibits the following items from being purchased with SNAP benefits:  alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, hot food and any food sold for on-premises consumption. Nonfood items such as pet foods, soaps, paper products, medicines and vitamins, household supplies, grooming items, and cosmetics, also are ineligible for purchase with SNAP benefits.

Soft drinks, candy, cookies, snack crackers, and ice cream are food items and are therefore eligible items.

Seafood, steak, and bakery cakes are also food items and are therefore eligible items.

Energy Drinks

When considering the eligibility of energy drinks, and other branded products, the primary determinant is the type of product label chosen by the manufacturer to conform to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines:

• Energy drinks that have a nutrition facts label are eligible foods.
• Energy drinks that have a supplement facts label are classified by the FDA as supplements and are therefore not eligible.

Live Animals

Generally live animals and birds are not eligible for purchase with SNAP benefits. Live seafood such as lobsters, fish and shellfish may be purchased with SNAP benefits.

Pumpkins, Holiday Gift Baskets, and Special Occasion Cakes

Pumpkins are edible and eligible for purchase with SNAP benefits. However, inedible gourds and pumpkins that are used solely for ornamental purposes are not eligible items.

Gift baskets that contain both food and non-food items are not eligible for purchase with SNAP benefits if the value of the non-food items exceeds 50 percent of the purchase price. To read the most recent notice about gift baskets, click here.

Items such as birthday and other special occasion cakes are eligible for purchase with SNAP benefits as long as the value of non-edible decorations does not exceed 50 percent of the purchase price of the cake.

U.S. Department of Agriculture / “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).” Food and Nutrition Service, 17 Nov. 2017, www.fns.usda.gov/snap/eligible-food-items

​SNAP purchases are not limited only to participating stores. Many of the Farmers Markets here in West Virginia also accept SNAP benefits.  When you use your Mountain State EBT Card at your local Farmers Markets, you are purchasing healthy and locally grown foods, while also supporting your local farmers.