Gov. Josh Stein wants the General Assembly to put $5 million in recurring funds to ensure North Carolina can access a summer food program for kids.
The SUN Bucks program started in 2024, helping to feed almost 1.1 million kids in North Carolina in its first year. Last summer, it provided more than $121 million to help more than a million kids.
Families of children who are eligible for the program receive a debit-like card with $120 loaded onto it to buy food for their child in the summer months, when they are not in school.
"Hunger does not go on vacation when school lets out. In fact, a lot of kids don't get the breakfast and lunch that they can receive at school when they're home during the summertime," said Stein, a Democrat.
But to receive a $125 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, North Carolina needs to provide $5 million in matching funds.
The state used philanthropic dollars to do that in 2024. This year, it had hoped to receive an appropriation from the General Assembly, but lack of progress on the state budget stymied that.
"We were worried that there would be more children who experienced hunger this summer than needed," Stein said.
The state worked with philanthropic partners like the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation of North Carolina, the Duke Endowment and Coca-Cola Consolidated, among others, to raise the money.
Colleen Briggs, the president of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation, said the organization is concerned about the impact more than one in five North Carolina children living with food insecurity could have on life-long health.
"We know that when a child lacks nutritious food, it not only harms their health and their development, but it also contributes to the prevalence of diet-related chronic conditions like type two diabetes that increase healthcare costs for everyone," Briggs said.
Stein is now pushing for the certainty of a recurring appropriation from the General Assembly for the matching SUN Bucks funds, to ensure that some of that food insecurity is eased when kids are out of school.
"The state shouldn't have to scramble each year to make sure that our children are not hungry in the summertime. So I urge the General Assembly to include SUN Bucks in the recurring budget for the summer of 2027 and beyond," Stein said.
Spokespeople for Senate President Pro Tempore and Speaker of the House Destin Hall, both Republicans, did not respond to requests for comment about whether they supported recurring funds for the program.
Lawmakers have indicated that they are unlikely to pass a new state budget until April at the earliest, WUNC reported this week.
