Food service assistant Brenda Bartee gives students breakfast at Washington Elementary School in Riviera Beach in August 2021. | Wilfredo Lee, AP
Published on January 28, 2025 at 2:49 pm
Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Sign up for the Jacksonville Today newsletter.
Q: Last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture launched a new food benefits program with the goal of helping families pay for the extra groceries they need when their kids are out of school over the summer.
Florida, along with 12 other states including Georgia and Alabama, chose not to participate in the program’s first year. Florida’s Department of Children and Families said it was because federal programs like this one “inherently always come with some federal strings attached.”
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
As of Jan. 1, Florida has officially missed the opportunity to participate in the SUN Bucks program for this coming summer.
Jacksonville Today readers Marc V. and Cathy B. both wrote in hoping to understand why the state government made the decision it did.
“Can you help your readers understand what the ‘federal strings’ are and what the state might be doing to replace this missed opportunity?”
A. The Department of Children and Families office did not respond to Jacksonville Today‘s request for a comment about participating in the SUN Bucks program. State officials have said previously that existing state programs are plenty capable of feeding hungry kids.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
SUN Bucks is an extension of the federal government’s Electronic Benefits Transfer program, sometimes known as food stamps. EBT allows low-income people to apply for monthly stipends to help pay for some groceries.
But during the summer months, when kids are home from school and not getting free meals some families rely on, grocery bills can skyrocket.
The USDA’s SUN Bucks program is designed to combat that, and the program officially launched last year.
Last year, 36 states participated in the program, allowing low-income families to take home $120 per child during the summer months.
In the Southeast, very few states participated.
Some participating states, like North Carolina, touted the program’s success in helping feed 1.1 million children. Others, like Tennessee, participated in 2024 and provided aid to some 700,000 kids, but Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said that the cost of administering the program was too great and that the program was unnecessary.
After what state officials called a big success in 2024, North Carolina will participate in the program again this year.
Jerquitta Hicks-Smallwood is the assistant director for North Carolina’s Food and Nutrition Services programs, and she helped administer SUN Bucks in North Carolina last summer.
She says the $130 million in benefits the state was able to issue to children and their families surpassed what the state was aiming for.
“We received overwhelming positive feedback about the program, not only from families, but other internal as well as external partners,” Hicks-Smallwood tells Jacksonville Today. “We do consider SUN Bucks to be a success for North Carolina.”
Tennessee cited the program’s cost as a reason to not participate this year, and Florida officials have indicated that the cost would be a problem, too.
To participate in the program, the USDA does have a few requirements. First, states are expected to shoulder 50% of the administrative cost in operating the program. In North Carolina, that totaled around $3.75 million.
States also are expected to report data back to the federal government, but Hicks-Smallwood said the process was fairly streamlined.
Instead of taking part in the SUN Bucks program, Florida officials are pointing to state programs that try to close the gap for hungry families like SNAP, the free and reduced lunch program for students and for summer break spot programs, where students can receive free food during the summer months by visiting participating locations.
In Northeast Florida, while the numbers are not as dire as other parts of the state, many families meet the income requirements for their children to receive free and reduced lunches. In a family of four, that’s an income of just $40,560 annually.
According to data from the state of Florida, 53% of Duval County elementary school students were eligible for free and reduced lunch in 2024, with 52% in Clay County, 47% in Nassau County and 22% in St. Johns County also meeting the requirements.
In a conversation with reporters last month, state Senate President Ben Albritton said he is working closely with Agricultural Commissioner Wilton Simpson to devise state solutions to combatting food insecurity among children. When it comes to the federal program, Albritton said he intended to speak with the DeSantis administration about participating.
