im so glad u asked this i was confused too!! got 4 cards for my 2 kids (2 rounds of benefits) and thought maybe they sent duplicates by accident lol

I'm in the same boat as you! Just got my second round of P-EBT cards and was super confused at first. Reading through all these comments has been really helpful - I had no idea each kid was supposed to get their own card. I've been treating them like regular EBT where the whole family shares one card. Good thing I kept all the cards from the first round! Now I need to figure out which card belongs to which kid since they all look pretty similar. Does anyone have tips for keeping track of multiple P-EBT cards?

Sometimes if you hit 0 a bunch of times during the automated message it will force you to a representative. Thats what I do with most of these stupid automated systems lol

I'm dealing with this exact same issue right now! My son's card should have loaded yesterday too and I keep getting that silent line after the welcome message. So frustrating when you're just trying to make sure your kid can eat lunch at school. I'm going to try that texting option someone mentioned - fingers crossed it works for us too. Thanks for posting about this, at least now I know it's not just me going crazy!

UPDATE: I called the number on the back of the card and activated it! The customer service rep said benefits for Kings County with last names R-T are scheduled to load on the 16th (tomorrow). Thanks everyone for your help! I'm going to save this for our grocery shopping next week.

That's great news! Thanks for updating us with the loading schedule - that's really helpful info for other Kings County families. It sounds like they're doing a really organized rollout this year. Hope you have a good shopping trip next week with the benefits!

lucky u!!! mine still pending after 2 weeks 😭

I'm in Riverside County too and just got approved for CalFresh last week! This is all really helpful info as a new recipient. I'm in group E and was wondering why my first payment seemed to come later than expected. Good to know it's not just me and that there's an actual reason for the delays. @Isaiah Sanders thank you for mentioning the expedited form - I'll definitely keep that in mind if I run into issues. Hope everyone gets their benefits sorted out soon! 🙏

UPDATE: I finally got through to my county office and spoke with a supervisor. She said my application was approved yesterday but is waiting for benefit issuance which could take 2-3 more business days. She said they've been completely overwhelmed with D-CalFresh applications (over 15,000 in our county alone) and are bringing in workers from other departments to help process them all. For anyone still waiting - don't give up! Keep calling and specifically ask to speak with a supervisor or manager who can look up your actual status.

This thread has been so helpful! I applied for D-CalFresh on 2/23 and have been stuck in "processing" status for 18 days now. Reading everyone's experiences gives me hope that it's not lost in the system. I'm definitely going to try calling and asking for a supervisor like Sophia suggested. It's frustrating that processing times vary so much by county - some people get approved in 8 days while others wait a month! Has anyone else noticed if certain counties are faster than others? I'm in San Bernardino County and wondering if I should expect a longer wait based on what I'm seeing here.