For millions of children, school meals are part of the daily rhythm: breakfast in the morning, lunch during the school day and reliable food they can count on.
But when summer begins, that rhythm changes.
Children still need breakfast and lunch, but those meals often become another expense families must cover at home. For parents already balancing household expenses, that added cost can be difficult to manage.
Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer, known as Summer EBT or SUN Bucks, was created to help families bridge that gap. The program provides eligible families with $120 per child in grocery benefits during the summer months, helping them purchase food when school meals are unavailable.
For families like Marlena Hanson's, that support can make a meaningful difference.
Hanson, a mother of five in rural Minnesota, knows how quickly grocery costs can add up.
"The food part, especially with them growing older, it does get hard to be able to provide food all the time," Hanson said. "My kids love fruits and vegetables. That's what they snack on all day."
When her family received Summer EBT benefits, the extra support arrived at exactly the right time.
"It honestly was really, really helpful," Hanson said. "When that money came in, it was able to provide meals so I could use the money that we did have towards getting them school clothes to be able to start school."
For Hanson, Summer EBT helped create room in the household budget for other essentials.
Parents across the country describe similar experiences.
Joelanis Kercado, a mother of four in New York, said Summer EBT helps her family manage the added cost of meals when school is out.
"Summer EBT is very helpful," Kercado said. "When the kids are out of school, it's a little bit difficult because I have to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner."
The impact extends beyond family budgets.
A pediatrician who works with children from low-income families described seeing children come into the clinic with concerns like stomach pain, headaches, fatigue and difficulty concentrating. In some cases, families worried there was a medical issue causing the symptoms. But after asking more questions, the underlying problem was sometimes much simpler: children were not consistently getting enough to eat.
During the summer months, when school meals are unavailable, those challenges can become even more pronounced. Consistent access to nutritious food helps children stay healthy and ready to learn.
Programs like Summer EBT help families maintain that stability through the summer.
But not every family has access to the program. Summer EBT is a federal program, but states must choose to participate.
In Texas, where the state has not implemented Summer EBT, parents like Kristal Webster continue to face rising grocery costs without this additional support.
Webster, a mother of three in Smithville, said feeding growing children during the summer is expensive. 
"Summer EBT would just be amazing," Webster said. "Kids have to eat regardless. There's no way around it. So having that extra while they're at home during the summer, they get to eat."
For Webster, the challenge is finding ways to absorb the additional costs that come when school is out. Her experience reflects the reality facing families in states that do not participate in Summer EBT.
Her experience highlights why we continue working to expand Summer EBT to additional states, including Texas and Georgia, so families are not left without support simply because of where they live.
No Kid Hungry has supported Summer EBT since before the program launched nationwide. The organization works alongside state agencies, local organizations and national partners to help states implement the program and connect eligible families with benefits.
The organization is also advocating for expansion in states that have not yet adopted Summer EBT, including Texas and Georgia.
Chloe Green, assistant director for policy at the American Public Human Services Association, one of our main partners in this work, said what matters most is whether families have food on the table.
"At the end of the day, what a family knows is whether or not they had food on their table and whether or not they had meals, or if they are going hungry," Green said.
Those efforts are helping more children access food during the summer months. In 2025, Summer EBT operated in 37 states, the District of Columbia, five U.S. territories and five Tribal Nations, and No Kid Hungry supported implementation efforts in 40 participating entities.
Recent successes in Wyoming and Tennessee mean more children will have access to grocery benefits when school is out. In Wyoming, SUN Bucks will be available in summer 2026 after Gov. Mark Gordon signed an executive order providing funding for the program. The milestone follows advocacy by the Wyoming Hunger Initiative, the Food Bank of Wyoming, No Kid Hungry and other partners across the state.
In Tennessee, Summer EBT will return in 2027 after state leaders approved $7 million in funding as part of the state budget. The victory follows a year of advocacy by No Kid Hungry, local partners and state champions who worked to rebuild support for the program after Tennessee withdrew from Summer EBT in 2025.
For families, Summer EBT can help stretch grocery budgets during an expensive season. For children, it means continued access to healthy food all summer long, and the chance to spend summer growing, playing and learning instead of wondering where their next meal will come from.
