CALIFORNIA, USA — California has rolled out the online use of food stamps for Amazon and Walmart.
Online use of benefits has been a pilot program for several states, but due to the coronavirus pandemic and stay at home orders, California managed to expedite the roll out for CalFresh to April 28.
The new feature will only be usable at Amazon and Walmart, at least for a while. Both stores are Food and Nutrition Services authorized retailers, and officials say they have the technological capacity to operate the online program during the pilot project.
California is currently trying to expand the number of participating stores.
When it comes to using your EBT card online, it will be a lot like using a credit or debit card with some important differences.
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When you shop online, you'll choose a delivery date and time before being taken to the payment page. Then you can select a payment option and enter your EBT card number and a pin on a virtual pin pad.
The key difference between using your EBT card and your debit card is that you can't use your EBT card to pay for delivery fees or other online fees. You'll have to pay for those with another payment option.
You'll be able to use EBT cash benefits for Walmart delivery fees, but for Amazon, you can use a feature called Amazon Cash. Basically, you can head to an Amazon Cash location, make an account, and deposit money to pay delivery fees or purchase other items from Amazon.
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