SUN Bucks Earns Wide Bipartisan Support as a Solution for Families Facing Summer Food Insecurity
By Grace Adcox and Matthew Cortland
For far too many families, summer brings the stress of nutrition insecurity, as parents and guardians whose children had access to healthy breakfasts and lunches at their schools must grapple with the question of how to afford feeding them throughout the summer.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) developed the SUN Bucks program in order to help families answer these questions, by providing supplementary grocery benefits to support low-income families in paying for these summer food costs. Data for Progress recently conducted a survey of national voters to understand perceptions of childhood hunger and gauge knowledge of, and attitudes toward, the national SUN Bucks program.
Many programs addressing food insecurity are already familiar to national likely voters, with awareness highest for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which 39% of voters say they have heard “a lot” about, followed by 39% who’ve heard “a little.” Other nationwide programs like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and the National School Lunch Program or School Breakfast Program also have generally high recognition, with 72% and 70% of respondents indicating they’ve heard at least a little about each program, respectively.
In contrast, SUN Bucks, formerly known as Summer EBT, has relatively low name recognition. Nearly 7 in 10 voters say they have heard “nothing at all” about the program, while only 11% say they’ve heard “a lot” about this policy.
While food insecurity for U.S. households with children declined over the 2010s in the recovery period following the Great Recession, the USDA reports notable spikes in childhood hunger rates during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly between 2021 and 2022. Based on their own knowledge, a plurality of voters (43%) believe rates of childhood hunger in the U.S. have worsened over the past several years, followed by 3 in 10 voters who think they have remained the same. Starkly, only 15% of voters believe that rates of childhood hunger have improved over the past several years. Parents and guardians of children are somewhat more optimistic, as only 35% believe that childhood hunger has worsened in recent years, while nearly half of respondents who self-identify as disabled (48%) think childhood hunger rates have worsened.
Regardless of the direction that they think childhood hunger rates are moving in, voters nearly universally agree that childhood hunger is a “somewhat urgent” or “very urgent” issue to address (90%). More specifically, over half of voters (54%) say that the issue is very urgent, with the same proportion of parents and guardians in agreement. Among voters who self-identify as disabled, urgency is higher, with 63% saying it is very urgent to address childhood hunger.
Next, respondents read a summary of the SUN Bucks program, describing the program’s efforts to provide low-income families with school-age children with one-time payments of $120 per eligible child to cover grocery costs during the summer. More than 4 of 5 voters (81%) support the national SUN Bucks program, including 90% of Democrats, 80% of Independents, and 74% of Republicans.
The program enjoys greater popularity among parents and guardians, with 86% in support of the program, and high intensity of support among people who self-identify as disabled. Among these respondents, 58% say they strongly support the program, followed by 26% who somewhat support the program (totaling 84% in support). In comparison, 47% of voters who do not self-identify as disabled say they strongly support the program, followed by 34% who somewhat support it (totaling 81% in support), mirroring patterns in the intensity of support for the program among parents and guardians of minors compared with those who aren’t parents.
Respondents next read information about the federal government’s efforts to encourage state participation in the SUN Bucks program by covering the full cost of one-time disbursements per eligible child, as well as half the costs of administering the program for each state. Thinking about their state’s role in SUN Bucks, 80% of voters say they would support their state’s participation in the program, including strong support across party lines.
After reading that 37 states, along with D.C. and several Tribal nations, participate in SUN Bucks, a majority of respondents (64%) say that the federal government should require all states to participate in the program, compared with only 27% who think state participation should remain optional. Majorities of Democrats (80%) and Independents (63%) support mandating state participation in the program, along with a plurality of Republicans (47%). Nearly three-quarters of parents and guardians (74%) support a federal requirement to expand the program to all states.
Finally, respondents were asked whether they agree that SUN Bucks is adequately addressing the most pressing needs for children’s health by focusing on food insecurity, or if voters view childhood obesity and nutrition as a more critical issue to address. Seventy percent of voters say they agree more with a statement saying that SUN Bucks helps families “feel secure about their ability to afford putting healthy food on the table at a time of high costs,” compared with only 22% who agree more with a statement saying that the SUN Bucks program is focused on the wrong issues for children’s health because “giving families EBT cards does nothing to provide nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic.”
These results reflect that the electorate is deeply concerned about the pressing need to address childhood hunger. Despite its name recognition being initially low, the SUN Bucks program enjoys strong bipartisan support when respondents read about its provisions, reflecting an opportunity to increase nutrition security of children from low-income families by raising awareness of SUN Bucks.
Grace Adcox (@GraceAdcox) is the Senior Climate Strategist at Data for Progress.
Matthew Cortland (@mattbc)is a senior resident fellow at Data for Progress.
Survey Methodology
From June 20 to 24, 2024, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,211 U.S. likely voters nationally using web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, geography, and 2020 recalled vote. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error associated with the sample size is ±3 percentage points. Results for subgroups of the sample are subject to increased margins of error. Partisanship reflected in tabulations is based on self-identified party affiliation, not partisan registration. For more information please visit dataforprogress.org/our-methodology.