MIAMI – For the second consecutive year, Florida declined to participate in a federal program for summer food benefits for low-income families to make sure kids don’t miss any meals while school is in recess.

 

The Sun Bucks program, which is a subsidiary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is designed to collaborate with other food benefits programs like SNAP and WIC in which parents can receive pre-loads cards with $120 per eligible child in grocery assistance during the summer.

 

The program fills in the gap when kids don’t have access to school meals during summer vacation, and other meal benefit programs are less available to them.

 

Florida missed the final January 1 deadline to participate in the Sun Bucks program which benefits over 2 million children in the state.

 

Florida is among 10 Republican-led states to decline the program including South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas and Tennessee.

 

According to the USDA, 21 percent of children in Florida depend on the Sun Bucks program, as most of them live below the poverty threshold.

 

Most of the children who went hungry during the past two summers were Black and Latino, 33 percent and 32 percent, respectively, according to the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau data.