A program to keep kids from going hungry in the summer was made permanent last year.
Different forms of Ohio’s Summer EBT Program, or SUN Bucks, have been used for close to 15 years.
The program was established to help families buy groceries during the summer months, said Rachel Cahill, a visiting fellow with the Center for Community Solutions.
SUN Bucks provided nutrition assistance to close to 1.2 million children in Ohio.
“Because they’re home for the summer and they’re no longer being provided that school meal, they’re able to get grocery dollars to purchase that food at home while while the children are home for the summer,” she said.
The Center for Community Solutions, which is an Ohio based think tank, interviewed families from Cuyahoga, Lake and Lawrence counties who used the program. It also used data from the state to compile information on the program’s first year.
“In addition to the family conversations that we had, we collected public records to understand the reach of the program and the economic impact of the program,” Cahill said. “To understand how Ohio’s economy and grocers were also benefiting from the program in addition to the families.”
That data showed that SUN Bucks provided nutrition assistance to close to 1.2 million children in Ohio.
Diving deeper into the overall impact, the report also found that over $118 million in federal funding was funneled into local grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and other SNAP retailers in all 88 counties across Ohio.
It also infused a total economic impact of over $182 million in 2024.
“The vast majority of children, 98%, were essentially able to receive the benefit without having to fill out a separate application because data was used to automatically identify those eligible children based on their participation in the National School Lunch program,” Cahill said. “So it was a very efficient program.”
Cahill said families they interviewed reported an appreciation for the timing of the benefits, ease of enrollment and the dignity the program provides.
“The flexibility that a benefit like this provides so that families can meet their own children’s dietary needs is really an ideal model,” she said. “And we’re excited that Ohio is going to continue to support this program in 2025.”
The think tank’s suggested improvements to the program include the timing of benefit rollouts and overall communication with schools.
“There’s a little bit more work that’s required behind the scenes to make sure that the right children are receiving the summer benefit in the summer,” Cahill said. “There needed to be more improved communication so those schools know how to answer parent questions that come up. And the sooner the schools are able to communicate information about SUN bucks to parents, the less questions we expect will come up in future summers and the more mature the program gets.”
Cahill said they expect the state to resolve benefit rollout issues going forward and look forward to the future impact this program can have on Ohio’s children.
“Families said it will be even more helpful in the future if that benefit is provided at the beginning of the summer when kids are initially out,” she said. “So that was one thing that we expect the state will be able to improve upon as they have more time to build up the program in the future.”
This article was originally published by a www.wyso.org . Read the Original article here. .