Confused about the $391 CalWORKs summer food benefit payment - one-time or three separate payments?

It's a one-time payment of $391 total that covers all three summer months (June-August). This is the Summer EBT program which is separate from your regular CalWORKs cash aid. Each eligible child gets a one-time benefit of $120 for the summer, plus there's an additional $31 administrative fee they include, so that's where the $391 comes from if you have 3 kids. They're issuing it as a single payment, not monthly.

i got mine last week and yea its just 1 payment for the whole summer. wish it was monthly tho lol. my kids eat so much during summer when theyre home all day!

The $391 is ONE payment for ALL summer! And honestly it's NOT enough!! How do they expect us to feed kids for 3 months on that?? My regular CalFresh barely covers 2 weeks as it is. I called my worker FIVE TIMES to ask if there would be more coming and she finally called back to say that's it. The whole system is broken!!! 😡

I spent 2 hours trying to reach someone at the CalWORKs office about this same question yesterday! Eventually I used this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me through to a real person in about 15 minutes. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/jzISHxCPLwE The worker confirmed it's a one-time payment of $391 total for the summer months if you have 3 eligible children. It's part of the Summer EBT program, which is different from your regular CalWORKs benefits. They're issuing them throughout May and June, so if you haven't received yours yet, it should be coming soon.

wait i thought it was based on how many kids u have??? my sister got $260 something and she has 2 kids, and i got $130 ish for my 1 kid. so yeah its 1 payment but the amount depends on ur family size

its 1 payment. got mine last tuesday. better than nothing i guess

Just to clarify some confusion I'm seeing here: This is the Summer EBT program (sometimes called Summer P-EBT in some counties), which provides a one-time benefit of approximately $120-130 per eligible child to help with food costs during summer when kids aren't getting school meals. It's separate from your regular CalWORKs cash aid and CalFresh benefits. The payments are being issued on a rolling basis through May and June. If you haven't received yours yet, it doesn't necessarily mean there's a problem. However, if you want to check on the status, you can contact your county office or use BenefitsCal online portal to check for notices. And yes, the total amount is based on the number of eligible children in your household. For a household with 3 eligible children, you'd receive approximately $391 as a single payment.

does anyone know if we get this food benefit thing AND our regular calworks? or do they take it out of our regular amount?

Just wanted to add that if you're having trouble getting through to your county office, you can also try calling early in the morning right when they open - I've found the wait times are usually shorter then. Also, some counties have different phone numbers for different programs, so make sure you're calling the right line for Summer EBT questions. The main CalWORKs line sometimes transfers you around a lot. Hope this helps someone avoid the frustration of sitting on hold forever!