A new, permanent program that will help struggling families feed their school-aged children, SUN Bucks, will provide each eligible child with $120 to buy groceries while school is out of session. Families currently on or who enroll in CalFresh will be automatically enrolled in SUN Bucks.
San Diego Hunger Coalition CEO Alondra Alvarado said this program extends throughout the county as the program will help families enrolled in CalFresh throughout San Diego County and the state. “This is a county-wide effort and a state program,” she said.
“This is a federal program, Summer EBT, but in California it is called SUN Bucks. The federal program aims to help provide aid through the summer to kids who may not have access to free or reduced-priced school meals. In San Diego County, summer is the hungriest time of the year because of school closures.”
Alvarado said this program will automatically enroll around 5 million children throughout the state and works with CalFresh.
“Children who qualify for free or reduced priced through school meals, who get alternative income, CalFresh, or enrolled in MediCal are automatically enrolled, and SUN Bucks participants can still receive other summer meal programs,” she said. Alvarado said according to recent research, one-in-four San Diegans experience nutrition insecurity, and out of the 830,000 people in San Diego County, 240,00 of them are children.
Alvardo said the program will roll out in June and is for any students enrolled in elementary, middle, and high schools, and they can still participate in summer meal programs at local schools and libraries. She said with this program, they will receive a debit card so they can go buy groceries for the entire family.
“Right now, we are urging parents to enroll in CalFresh. In San Diego County, only 60% of the people who qualify for CalFresh are enrolled in the program. There are still around 240,000 that are still eligible who have not enrolled. So, we are doing outreach to get people to enroll in Cal- Fresh, receive the SUN Buck benefits, and stay enrolled with the program after the summer,” she said. T
he San Diego Hunger Coalition is a nonprofit that focuses on equitable food access, said Alvarado. She said the organization does research, outreach, and uses its data, advocate at the local, state, and federal level to eliminate systemic barriers with regulations, legislations, and bills that deny families access to these types of programs.
One school administrator, Joshua Kohler, said over half of the students in the Chula Vista school district will qualify and benefit from this program. With more than 28,000 students, there are between 15,000 and 16,000 who will be directly impacted by this opportunity.
“We are looking at about 16,000 students and families having more expendable income, that can then make some healthy and nutritious food decisions,” he said. “In a time of elevating costs of living, financial stressors, it will be a huge asset and benefit for our families, even if just to minimize stress or combat childhood hunger or balancing out meals.”
Kohler said this program stemmed from the pandemic EBT during the shelter in place during COVID, a period where families and children were able to get extra EBT through the CalFresh network because it was recognized that so many families and children benefitted from universal breakfasts and lunches provided by in-class instruction during the school year.
“Even though schools have started back to in-person instruction, over the summer breaks, we do see that rise in childhood hunger and food insecurity,” he said. “Any parent with children knows that bottomless pit that children have, as they consume quite a bit because they are growing so much. There are already 5 million children that will be automatically enrolled across the state, and as an attempt as an equity strategy for implementation. With this partnership with school districts, we have daily interactions with these children and families. So, if we can leverage our school systems to help bridge that gap for communications, when families know better, they do better. If we can help families access this information, it is only going to be a benefit for them and our community as a whole because we are going to have a healthier community.”
In a statement from the county, Sun Bucks works the same as CalFresh and can be used to buy food like fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy products at most grocery stores, farmer’s markets, and other authorized dealers.
“No child should spend their summer hungry,” said Richard Wanne, director of the County Department of Self Sufficiency in a press statement. “SUN Bucks are a great way to ensure families in need don’t have to worry about how they will put food on the table.”