Many families in North Carolina will receive $120 in benefits to help pay for groceries to feed their school-age children this summer, with some of those benefits arriving as soon as Friday.
That’s due to a new program called “SUN Bucks†which is being provided to lower-income families this year as a collaboration between the federal government, state government and philanthropic donors. The $120 is a lump sum to cover the whole summer.
It’s somewhat similar, but not identical to a benefits program designed to help families during the pandemic that has since been discontinued.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is covering the cost of the benefits — about $120 million in North Carolina — but has also required that states chip in a 50% match for the costs of operating the program. Not all states are participating.
People are also reading…
“Contributions from our philanthropic partners have helped North Carolina meet the state matching requirements in this first year of the program, due to the short timeframe to stand up the program,†a spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services said. “Governor Cooper has requested funding in his budget to continue operating the program in future years.â€
The donors are Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, Smithfield Foods, The Leon Levine Foundation, Dogwood Health Trust, Cone Health Foundation and Brighthouse Financial.
Families of children who currently get Food and Nutrition Services benefits will get the new SUN Bucks benefits loaded onto their existing Electronic Benefits Transfers cards between June 14 and June 23, according to information from the state.
Families of other eligible children will get a SUN Bucks EBT card in the mail. Those may arrive any time between mid-June and early July, according to the state.
Most eligible children will qualify automatically. The state is reaching out to other families it believes will qualify via email and text message. A link and instructions to apply are also available at . Telephone assistance is available by dialing 1-866-719-0141 and pressing option 2.
The state is accepting applications through Aug. 31 for summer 2024. North Carolina families whose children completed the school year in another state, cannot receive the benefits from North Carolina, but should consider applying in that other state, according to NCDHHS.