SUN Bucks gave parents $150 per month, per kid, to buy much needed groceries during the summer months.
(Seth Tackett, WTIU/WFIU News)
After Indiana opted out of a federal program that fed children through the summer, advocates are worried about the future of other food assistance programs.
Indiana officials announced in May that the state would not participate in the federal SUN Bucks program, which provided low-income families $120 per child, per month, to buy groceries during the summer.
Mark Lynch, director of advocacy for Indy Hunger Network, said that the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) missed the original February deadline to apply to the program. The department submitted a waiver in March to participate, but didn’t receive a response before the Braun administration intervened.
“We heard that the $2.8 million that it would cost to administer the fund for the summer was something that the Braun administration didn't feel like they had the money to do,” he said.
Lynch said that because the state administration wasn’t willing to pay to administer the SUN Bucks program, it may not be willing to cover changes to the even larger SNAP program.
“If it passed the way that it (the U.S. House of Representatives budget) currently is, there's about a $350 million cost share that the state would have to take on, and as we talked about earlier in the interview, they weren't willing to take on $2.8 million,” he said.
About 669,000 Hoosier children were enrolled in the SUN Bucks program last year.
