How do you use Calfresh?

So you’ve finally received your EBT card in the mail. Now what?

The EBT card acts like a debit card. Every month, money is automatically deposited in the account. You can check your card balance here.

One important thing to keep in mind is that the balance rolls over. This means that if you do not use the full amount for the given month, the remaining balance is still available to use the following month. For example, if you receive 200 dollars a month and you have 50 dollars left over from last month, the new balance would be 250 dollars.

So do you exactly use the card?

Believe it or not, I struggled to use the EBT card when I first received it. I didn’t know if I was supposed to simply swipe the card through the payment terminal or if I was supposed to hand it over to the cashier.

Since the EBT card acts like a debit card, you would swipe the card as if you were paying using a debit/credit card. The only other difference is that you would need to select the “Food” option and enter your pin. Do not lose or give away your pin. You will need your pin for all of your purchases.

Tip: After every purchase, the cashier or the kiosk will generally print out a receipt. If you’re ever curious about your remaining Calfresh balance and don’t want to check online, the receipt will sometimes print out the balance information.

So where can I use my EBT card?

In my experience, you can use your EBT card at virtually any supermarket. This includes your typical retail supermarkets (Ralph’s, Trader Joes, Whole Foods), but also “speciality” supermarkets such as Costco or 99 Ranch Market. EBT cards are even accepted in some farmer’s markets and some fast food chains (I personally think it’s more worth it spending your EBT card for fresh produce, but fast food chains are a viable option).

You can find a more comprehensive list here.

So what can I buy using the EBT card?

Here’s what you can buy:

• Fruits and vegetables
• Frozen food
• Meat, fish, poultry
• Milk, cheese, dairy products
• Rice, beans, tortilla, bread, cereal

Here’s what you can’t buy:

• Alcohol, cigarettes, tobacco
• Non-food products (shampoo, tissue paper, pet food)
• Vitamins and medicine
• Hot foods

Refer to this website for a full list of what you can buy.

A good rule of thumb is that you can basically buy anything in the store as long as it’s food and that it’s not hot food. This means that you will not be able to buy a rotisserie chicken, but you’re able to purchase cold sandwiches. And yes, you can buy candy and junk food with Calfresh, although I would strongly advise against doing so. This actually is a point of contention between public health advocates and SNAP (Fisher 109). Since the purchasing of sugary foods and other “unhealthy” products are allowed under SNAP, there is an ongoing debate on whether SNAP should focus its efforts on improving nutrition or fight against hunger. This issue is of course further complicated by large food company lobbyists who push for their products to be eligible. Therefore, even though food assistance programs often claim their goal is to increase nutrition in low-income households, studies have found that “evidence is not conclusive.” A study performed in 1973 by Logan and de Loach found that the level of nutritional intake correlated more so with factors such as education and age, rather than income and access to food stamps (Suryanarayana 152).

Tip: Sometimes you’ll encounter products that seem to have an ambiguous category (think Chia seeds or flaxseeds). These products appear to be either a vitamin/supplement or regular food. The easiest way to determine if product qualifies as EBT is checking the back of the label. If it says “supplement facts,” then you are not able to purchase it. If it says it’s “nutrition facts,” you are able to purchase it.

Works Cited:

Fisher, Michael. Big Hunger: The Unholy Alliance between Corporate America and Anti-Hunger Groups. MIT Press. 2017.

Suryanarayana, M.H. “Some Experiments with Food Stamps.” Economic and Political Weekly. Vol. 30, no. 52, 2014.