Indiana families who utilized a federal food benefits program last summer won’t get that help in 2025 — because the state didn’t act in time.
Officials in Gov. Mike Braun’s administration say they couldn’t launch the program this summer due to missed planning deadlines under the previous leadership.
SUN Bucks is a nationwide effort to help low-income families buy groceries while school is out.
Now, Indiana is one of the few states in the Midwest opting out, despite successfully running the program last summer for more than 669,000 children.
The state’s SUN Bucks program – part of the nationwide Summer EBT Program – provides $120 per eligible school-aged child to help families afford groceries during the summer months. Children ages 7 to 18 qualified for the card benefit. These benefits supplemented other assistance programs like WIC and SNAP.
Indiana is one of the only states in the Midwest not participating this summer. Neighboring states Illinois, Ohio and Michigan extended the benefit to families.
According to state officials, Indiana can’t launch the program this summer due to what they called “gaps in prior preparations” during Gov. Eric Holcomb’s administration. Braun took office in January.
For a timely rollout, the state’s Division of Family Resources “needed clear direction from state leadership during late summer to early fall of 2024,” FSSA said in a statement.
“Upon taking office, this administration quickly submitted a waiver application to the Food and Nutrition Service to explore all possible avenues for launching the program this summer,” FSSA said. “However, our review revealed that the gaps in prior preparations prevented implementation in time for Summer 2025.”
WFYI asked the Indiana Department of Education about the decision; the department referred all questions to FSSA.
‘This is going to be a problem’
Anti-hunger advocates called the decision “frustrating.”
“It really helped working families last year and helped those students who were home from school,” said Mark Lynch, advocacy director of the Indy Hunger Network. “It was 100% what we would call an effective program, and so it was very frustrating when they decided to ultimately not do this.”
According to FSSA, families in low-income communities can access free summer meals through the Summer Food Service Program. There are about 1,000 locations across the state, including schools.
Lynch said his organization is already helping families prepare to fill the gap left by SUN Bucks.
“How can we work together with a carpool, with our neighbors, go to your churches, synagogues, mosques, community centers now,” Lynch said. “Because this is going to be a problem, and the more that we communicate that, the more people can kind of prepare for this change in their economic status for the summer.”
Lynch said advocates delivered more than 200 letters to Gov. Mike Braun’s office urging the state to continue the program.
During a March conversation with WFYI, No Kid Hungry said SUN Bucks were effective by directly meeting families where they needed and “giving them a benefit that they can use at the grocery store”
“It reduced child food insecurity by more than a third, and increased nutritional intake,” Eleni Towns said. “It's a direct way to support those families.”
Find a school site offering free summer meals
The state’s Department of Education has an online interactive map that displays school meal sites. The map is noticeably dated, with a few locations that no longer exist or have changed. Like HIM By HER Collegiate School for the Arts, which closed in 2023.
Rachel Fradette is the WFYI Statehouse education reporter. Contact Rachel at rfradette@wfyi.org.