By Heather Willoughby
SUN Bucks coming off an impressive inaugural year, helped to add nearly half a billion dollars to California’s economy – serving a little over 4 million individual students in 2024, according to preliminary reports from California Department of Social Services. Now that the USDA has approved California’s plan, CDSS and the California Department of Education must do some heavy lifting. Coordinating all the counties and timelines throughout California is a very complex task, made additionally challenging by the shifting federal landscape, so we are grateful for their hard work.
One aspect of the SUN Bucks program contributing to the complexity is the eligibility process. Needing a flow chart and a list of acronyms to find out if you should be looking for a card in the mail is not what a busy parent wants to navigate while preparing for all the changes that come with summer. Additionally, there is a very tight deadline to respond if you didn’t receive the card through the streamlined eligibility route. Many schools and local education agencies have varied hours during summer months, which is an issue when they are the only places designated to receive completed Universal Benefits Applications for SUN Bucks.
These barriers to access, coupled with concerns about data privacy, could be part of the reason that this vital benefit isn’t reaching all the students in California that it could. Senate Bill 411 (Pérez), the Stop Child Hunger Act of 2025, offers a vital solution.
SB 411 seeks to address hunger needs of students beyond summer breaks. It will provide for additional food benefits during spring and winter breaks, when many families struggle to afford extra childcare or have more mouths at home to feed. The bill would also give the state more agility in addressing student needs during state-declared disasters like wildfires, floods and other unforeseen school closures.
According to the factsheet for Senate Bill 411, 1.8 million students eligible for SUN Bucks have yet to apply. The confusion for many parents, who are not part of the streamlined certification process, stems from the fact that there are two different school meal programs that make school lunches free for every student in California. Students at schools with the federal program that are streamlined already will get cards sent to them automatically. For Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) or Provision 2 schools that are covered by the state’s free meal program, parents that are not categorically eligible through participation in public benefits programs will have to submit an application to their local education agency (LEA) by September 1rst, if they are income eligible. Many of the parents I spoke to last year said they didn’t apply because they erroneously believed their child receiving a free meal at school automatically qualified them. Lack of familiarity with the program made them hesitant to follow up on how to receive a card. You can register here for California Association of Food Bank’s webinar on May 29th to learn more about SUN Bucks for 2025.
SB 411 would create a web application for SUN Bucks in multiple languages, which is particularly helpful for families whose primary language is not English. It would take the pressure off of LEA’s to coordinate and create collections of Universal Benefit Applications from their students and give working parents a way to submit when LEA offices are closed.
Additionally, SB 411 invests in our school nutrition professionals, as well as children. By providing opportunities for additional hours and ensuring on-site meal options during school breaks, we are supporting the very individuals who are on the frontlines of this fight against hunger. Many of these workers are part-time and struggle with reduced hours during student vacation periods.
This bill is an investment in our communities. Joining Senator Pérez, the bill’s author, are its sponsors, including the California Association of Food Banks (CAFB), GRACE/End Child Poverty and the SEIU. In this tight budget year, it is important to uplift this bill because of the positive multigenerational impact families experience when more federal dollars flow to our economy.
You can find more information about the bill, and once it (hopefully) moves through the Senate Appropriations Committee you can access an updated Letter of Support template, on CAFB’s website here.