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Restaurant Meal Program

California’s Restaurant Meal Program allows eligible clients receiving food stamp benefits to purchase prepared foods at participating restaurants or retail stores (grocery stores, etc.) using their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards.

Client Eligibility
Only homeless, elderly, and disabled food stamp recipients are eligible to participate in the Restaurant Meal Program. Client eligibility is determined by each county and is automatically verified through the point-of-sale (POS) device at the time of the transaction.

Counties
Each county determines if it wants to participate in the Restaurant Meal Program. Counties interested in participating must submit a proposal for approval to the California Department of Social Services (CDSS). Proposal requirements are detailed in the CDSS All County Information Notice No. 1-31-04, which can be found at: http://www.dss.cahwnet.gov/getinfo/acin04/pdf/I-31_04.pdf

For more information or questions on the Restaurant Meal Program, contact the CDSS Food Stamp Bureau at: http://www.cdss.ca.gov/foodstamps/contact.htm

Restaurant / Retailer
To participate, restaurants or retailers must:

• Have their place of business located in a county participating in the Restaurant Meal Program. To determine if a county is participating, check with the county's Department of Social Services or Department of Health and Human Services.
• Sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the county.
• Apply for authorization from the United States Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to process food stamp transactions as a restaurant; approved applicants will receive an FNS number.
• Have a POS device that can process EBT transactions. The POS device must have a personal identification number (PIN) pad.

NOTE: Grocery stores that already have an FNS number for processing food stamp transactions will need a second FNS number to process restaurant meal transactions.

POS Hardware / Software
Restaurants and retail stores have the option of using their own integrated POS devices or state-owned, EBT-only POS devices. No changes to the EBT software are required to process restaurant meals transactions.

EBT Cash
Some EBT cards have cash benefits, and some have both cash and food stamp benefits. While the Restaurant Meal Program is designed for eligible clients to use their food stamp benefits at participating restaurants, there are no restrictions on clients using cash benefits to purchase restaurant meals or prepared foods. For a restaurant or retailer processing cash benefits, an FNS number is not required.

Taxes
Restaurants are prohibited from charging a sales tax or meal tax on prepared foods purchased with food stamp benefits. Prepared foods purchased with cash benefits are taxable.

Additional Information for Terminal Drivers and Processors
Client eligibility is verified on the EBT host system at the time of the transaction. If a client is ineligible, a denial code of “058 Invalid Transaction” is sent to the processor. When this happens, a state-owned EBT-only POS device will display either a denial code of “Declined 050,” a denial code of “INVALID TRAN !0,” or a denial code of INVALID TRAN !6.” Denial codes displayed on integrated systems that are not provided by the state will vary according to processor.

Information
For more information on the Restaurant Meal Program, contact the EBT Project Office at (916) 263-4300.