Last January, Mississippi decided to opt out of the new federal SUN Bucks program, which would have provided every family who is eligible for free and reduced lunch during the school year with additional grocery benefits of $40 per month per child to support with extra food expenses when children are not receiving breakfast and lunch at school. By failing to submit a Notice of Intent to the USDA to implement the program by January 1, 2025, Mississippi has effectively opted out again for this summer.
But we knew we could not opt out for our families, so we created a summer cash disbursement program that provided an equivalent amount of cash to qualifying families that would have been eligible for SUN Bucks. Our cash disbursement program proved that providing families with additional resources for food in the summer helped reduce summer food insecurity.
But we wanted to make sure that our policymakers and state leaders knew that, as well.
While we’re proud of the 672 children who received these additional benefits from us, there are 324,000 children across the state who would be eligible for benefits were Mississippi to implement the program. None of those children should have to go hungry during the summer — especially when the resources are readily available if we were to say yes to them.
Last week, we released our latest white paper — Filling the Gap — featuring stories and data from our summer cash disbursement program that centers the real, lived experience of families who received these resources and demonstrates the power of programs like ours or SUN Bucks to reduce summer food insecurity.
In conjunction with the paper release, we hosted our first state capitol advocacy day. Our staff along with our Policy and Systems Change fellows and coalition partners spent the morning of January 23rd at the state capitol building, sharing stories, and educating policymakers and other advocates about the SUN Bucks program and the potential benefits it could bring to our state.
For many of our fellows, this was the first time they had ever been in the state capitol building and the first time they had had such direct access to state policymakers and leaders. It was an important reminder that their voices and stories are powerful and belong in the state capitol just as much as anyone else’s. They also got to sit down for a lunch after a full morning with six members of the Mississippi House to share more and hear directly from legislators about what they are working toward during this session and how the fellows can continue to use their voices for advocacy and to hold Mississippi policymakers accountable.
We know there is still a lot of work to do — both to get a SUN Bucks program implemented in Mississippi and to ensure all our social safety net programs are grounded in family voice and experience. But as a first step, we hope you’ll join our campaign to bring more meals to Mississippi kids and help us fight summer food insecurity in Mississippi.
