Many Ohio students rely on free lunches throughout the school year, and once the school year ends, those daily free meals will no longer be available.
This is what some experts are calling a “summer food shortage,” with hunger soaring among children without school breakfast, lunch and after-school snacks.
A new program in Ohio aims to help improve families’ nutrition outside of the school year: The Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (SUN Bucks) program provides Ohio families with additional financial assistance to feed their children over the summer.
This is the first permanent federal nutrition benefit in more than 50 years.
WVXU environmental reporter Isabel Nisley reported on the program and joined Ohio Newsroom for commentary.
This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
About the new program
“The SUN Bucks program will ultimately provide eligible families with $120 per child attending school. [each summer]These benefits can be used to purchase groceries at any store that accepts EBT.
The program is meant to fill the hunger gap students face during the summer when free school meals are hard to come by. Recently, we both went to the grocery store and realized that $120 wasn’t enough to buy enough food to feed our kids through the summer. I spoke with Kim McKenzie, SNAP Outreach Manager at Resource Food Bank of Cincinnati, and she told me that SUN Bucks benefits can really offset a family’s food costs, especially when combined with other nutrition assistance programs like SNAP or summer meal sites.
But SUN Bucks differs from summer meal programs in that it gives students and families a few more nutritional options. Instead of receiving pre-prepared meals, families receive money to spend on needed groceries.”
Qualified
“In Ohio, we estimate there are more than 800,000 students who qualify for this program, and many of these families will receive $120 directly on their Ohio Directions Card.”
When I spoke with Kim McKenzie, she said that children whose families receive SNAP or Ohio Works First benefits are automatically enrolled in the program by the state. Children who receive Medicaid and are individually approved for free or reduced lunch also automatically receive SUN Bucks benefits.
Child hunger activists in Ohio hope the new program will help fill the “summer food gap.”
Many other students are eligible but must apply for the program, including homeless children, children from families with mixed immigration status who may not qualify for SNAP benefits, and children who receive free or reduced-price lunches but were not required to apply for the National School Lunch Program.
The rollout of these benefits is expected to begin around now, in mid-June, but not all families will receive their SUN Bucks on the same day. Distribution will continue throughout the summer.”
Other summer food assistance options
“Meal programs are open to all children between the ages of 1 and 18 throughout the state. For the most part, they are located in libraries, recreation centers, churches, etc. And children can eat at these meal sites whether they receive SUN Bucks or not.”
We certainly need these programs in our state. Jolie Novotny is executive director of the Ohio Food Bank Association. [on an episode of Cincinnati Edition] She said hunger surveys have found that two in three Ohio adults skipped a meal or ate less at some point in the past year.
According to Feeding America, one in five children in Ohio experiences hunger, and about 40% of households receiving SNAP benefits in the state have children.”
