A new federal assistance program is greatly increasing summer meal access for children in Maryland — reaching nearly half a million more statewide than last year.
The SunBucks program provides $120 stipends per eligible child directly to families through electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards, so they can choose the food they want. This summer was the first year the program received full federal and state backing.
With that investment, over 586,000 Maryland children earned the monthly payments from June through August.
“What's important about that is that in the hands of families were $70.5 million in grocery-buying benefits,” said Secretary of Human Services Rafael López. “That's in the local economy, in the hands of families, and helping us get food on the table.”
And in the Baltimore area, over 160,000 children received SunBucks benefits this year, earning more than $19 million in grocery stipends.
Maryland’s original out-of-school assistance program, called Summer SNAP, served around 90,000 children across 14 county and city districts in 2023. But SunBucks requires no buy-in from local governments — and it automatically enrolls students who qualify for other aid like free and reduced price school lunches.
“If a family was already receiving some sort of benefits on an EBT card, we loaded them right on that card,” López said. “At the end of the day, what we're trying to do is make sure that we don't make people prove their poverty to us over and over. If a family is struggling to buy groceries, we want to make it easy.”
Automatic enrollment qualified 99% of SunBucks recipients. And every jurisdiction participated – with some seeing “astounding” increases in outreach, López said.
For example, 710 children in Western Maryland benefitted from Summer SNAP in 2023. But over 51,000 received SunBucks stipends.
Sarah Moorefield is a single mother of two teenage girls living on the Eastern Shore, where ten times more children were served this summer through SunBucks. She said the stipends “came as a surprise.”
“I got a letter in the mail with the card one day, super confused,” Moorefield told WYPR. “I didn’t apply for it. But both of my children receive free and reduced meals at school.”
The extra $80 each month was a “huge relief,” she said. She usually spends $150-200 per week on groceries.
“And it's definitely on the higher side of that in the summer because the girls are snacking more, eating more meals at home,” Moorefield said. “With the rising costs, it’s still a stressful time buying groceries in general.”
This was the first time her family has received summer meal benefits, Moorefield said. And she’s already banking on the aid for next year.
López said Maryland leaders have already indicated to the federal government that they are eager to use SunBucks again next summer.
“We already learned a lot about making sure that we make our outreach more accessible, making sure that we partner with community-based organizations, with schools, with community leaders, with churches to make sure we get the word out,” he said. “And we look forward to getting feedback on how we can improve, so that we are always trying to make sure that the way in which we serve Marylanders is better, stronger and filled with more dignity and respect.”
