Fighting Summer Hunger with Summer EBT

When school ends for the summer, 30 million U.S. children lose a critical benefit: free breakfast and lunches. For families with limited food budgets, school meals are a lifeline. Without them, millions of kids lose access to nutritious food.

Fortunately, Summer EBT (also called SUN Bucks), a national program offered by the USDA, helps fill the gap by providing families with eligible school-aged children a one-time grocery stipend of $120 per child to buy nutritious foods and everyday essentials, including fresh fruits, vegetables, milk, bread, and other pantry staples.

Eligibility

Families with school-aged children who qualify for SNAP, TANF, or free or reduced-price school meals are eligible and automatically enrolled. You do not need to be a citizen to qualify, and you will not be asked about your immigration status. Families who are not automatically enrolled may apply through their state’s administering agency.

Not every U.S. tribe, state, or territory is participating in Summer EBT. To make it easier to check eligibility, PHA worked with its partners to create this website, where families can take a quick, private survey to see if they’re eligible and get help signing up for the benefit.

Check if you’re eligible:

Additional Summer Feeding Programs

USDA also offers two other programs to help families stretch their food budgets over the summer: SUN Meals and SUN Meals To-Go. These programs are open to all families with kids ages 18 and under and don’t require enrollment!

• SUN Meals: Provides free meals and snacks to kids and teens at schools, parks, and other neighborhood locations.
• SUN Meals To-Go: If you live in a rural community where SUN Meals are hard to access, you may be able to get meals via pick-up or delivery through SUN Meals To-Go.

Check the USDA Summer Meals for Kids Site Finder to find locations offering these benefits near you.

Good Food for Every Kid — All Summer

PHA is proud to be part of the coalition of hunger-fighting organizations working to raise awareness about these programs, so no kid goes hungry over the summer. If you’d like to support this work, you can use this toolkit to help us spread the word online and offline — or make a donation to PHA now to connect more families with good food that powers health.

Together, we can ensure every kid has good food all summer long!