During the summer months, dozens of states across the country will distribute an extra $120 allocation to low-income families who are beneficiaries of the SNAP benefits program and have school-age children. It is a new plan from the Federal Government known as SUN Bucks, and its purpose is to prevent those families with school-age children who participate in school feeding programs from leaving these minors at food risk, since during those months they do not attend classes, and don’t receive food in the participating school lunchrooms.
Feeding America, one of the largest and most respected organizations that fight hunger in the entire United States, celebrated the launch of this program and assured that at least 20 million children in participating states will benefit.
“This new program could not be starting at a better time. In 2022, more than 13 million children in the U.S.—one in five—were living in food-insecure households,” Vince Hall, Feeding America’s chief government relations officer, told Newsweek. “This is a 44% increase from the prior year and the highest rate of child food insecurity since 2014.”
SUN Bucks 2024: Participating and Non-participating States
The only problem is that not all states in the union are participating in this national summer food stamps project. Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Indiana, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico have opted out of this program.
Each state came up with their own reasons, but some of them claimed that they did not have sufficient structure to make this program work and that the cost of carrying it out was higher than the funds they are receiving from the Federal Government.
On the other hand, there is the list of states that have decided to join the SUN Bucks 2024 program:
- American Samoa
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Guam
- Illinois
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Maine
- Maryland
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Dakota
- Northern Mariana Islands
- Ohio
- Specific tribes within Oklahoma, but not the state itself
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- Tennessee
- Virginia
- Washington
- Washington, D.C.
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
This is the map of the participating states in which you will see in light blue the states that have already confirmed their participation and in blue the states that confirmed their participation but are still finishing the respective procedures with the United States Department of Agriculture United States (USDA).
Who Qualifies to Receive SUN Bucks?
Families with school-aged children who already receive some types of benefits such as SNAP, FDPIR, or TANF automatically qualify and do not need to make a formal application. If your child attends a school that offers the National School Lunch or School Breakfast Program and your household income qualifies for free or reduced-price school meals, you also qualify.
In any case, if you do not meet any of the two previous requirements, you should apply if you have school-age children and your family is in a difficult financial situation.
Payment dates are not the same in all states. According to the same USDA, payments will be made between the months of June, July and August, depending on the state where you reside. Contact the nearest SNAP benefits office in your county or city for the exact date.
