Indiana has decided to cut additional food benefits for families with children who are food insecure, with these families losing $120 per month that was used to help children age 7 to 18 who can’t travel to school breakfast and lunch programs in the summer.
Katie Howe, the executive director of the Indy Hunger Network, called the decision “a giant leap backwards,” according to reporting by the Indiana Capital Chronicle.
We could not agree more.
The federal summer food service program, known as SUN bucks, helped 669,000 children in 2024. Awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, SUN Bucks are allowed to be combined with free summertime meals and meals-to-go programs to ensure schoolchildren don’t go hungry during “summer vacation.” School breakfasts and lunches are often the only reliable source of nutrition for many students year-round, and if they lose access when the academic year ends, it can be catastrophic.
Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. will have a summer meals program this year at a number of their schools, but student will have to be able to travel to the school or agency where meals are being offered to get food. This is different than having the SUN Bucks available to parents to purchase food to keep the refrigerator and pantry stocked for their children in the summer.
There is also the question of hungry kids with food allergies — what if a child who is allergic to peanut butter shows up at a meal site and the meal is peanut butter sandwiches? Shouldn’t a parent be trusted with the ability to choose appropriate food in that instance?
Children in school can qualify and receive free or reduced price breakfasts and lunches throughout the school year. The Indiana Youth Institute reports that nearly half of Indiana’s students qualified for free or reduced meals in 2024, or more than 509,000 children.
“While SUN Bucks will be discontinued for 2025, students in low-income areas of the state can still receive free summer meals at approximately 1,000 locations (schools and other organizations) through the USDA’s Summer Food Service Program,” wrote Courtney Bearsch, a spokeswoman for Indiana’s Department of Education.
Bearsch pointed families toward the USDA’s Site Finder Map and Hunger Hotline to identify participating locations. The hotline is accessible Monday through Friday between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern Time at 1-866-3-HUNGRY (1-866-348-6479) for English speakers or at 1-877-8-HAMBRE (1-877-842-6273) for Spanish speakers.
But that really isn’t enough.
For Indiana to turn its back on nearly half the youth in its state by withholding food for three months out of the year is unconscionable, all because we expect these youngsters to travel to a meal site that they had bus transportation to during the school year.
We are now among the states who don’t consider it a priority to feed food-insecure children in the summer months. And that’s extremely disappointing.
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The loss of the program was a setback for advocates like Howe working to feed Indiana’s hungry, especially in the face of economic uncertainty.
“The cost of groceries keeps rising. It’s getting harder and harder to buy those foods that your family needs,” concluded Howe. “Just having that little bit of help really makes a difference to families that are struggling.”
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