Starting today, North Carolina Food and Nutrition Services participants will be able to purchase groceries online using their Electronic Benefit Transfer cards at an additional authorized online EBT retailer, Carlie C’s. This flexibility will allow participants to buy food while also promoting social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and helping families with transportation and mobility barriers.
“We want to make it easy for people to feed their families while practicing social distancing,” said NCDHHS Deputy Secretary for Human Services Tara Myers, “Adding additional retailers where people can use their EBT cards for online purchases is another step towards making the FNS program as accessible and convenient as possible.”
Carlie C’s becomes the third North Carolina EBT retailer, along with Walmart and Amazon, to be approved for online FNS purchases. In May 2020, North Carolina was one of the first 10 states to implement online purchasing for FNS, which will remain permanently in place beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture must approve other retailers who wish to participate in the FNS online purchasing program. NCDHHS encourages other EBT retailers to pursue USDA approval to become authorized online retailers. All EBT retailers in North Carolina have received information from USDA about how to become approved for online FNS purchases. More information for retailers is available on the USDA website.
More information about North Carolina Food and Nutrition Services can be found at https://www.ncdhhs.gov/assistance/low-income-services/food-nutrition-services-food-stamps, and North Carolina individuals and families can apply for FNS at https://epass.nc.gov/CitizenPortal/application.do.