In Mississippi, summer can increase risk of hunger for 3 in 4 kids who rely on in-school meals
By Sophia Paffenroth | Originally published by Mississippi Today
For the third year in a row, Gov. Tate Reeves opted out of a state-federal partnership that would have given summer grocery benefits to roughly 320,000 Mississippi children who rely on free meals during the school year.
Thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia are enrolled in the program, called SUN Bucks, which doles out $120 for each eligible child during the months when school is not in session. By opting not to participate, Reeves turned down about $38 million in federal funding.
Statewide, nearly three-quarters of students rely on free or reduced-cost school meals for consistent nutrition, according to the Mississippi Department of Education. In the summer, many of those children go hungry. On an average day in the summer of 2023, only 1 in 4 Mississippi children who depend on free or reduced-cost school meals made it to an in-person meal site, according to a national study conducted by the Food Research and Action Center.
Shelby Wilcher, the governor’s spokesperson, told Mississippi Today that Reeves opted out of SUN Bucks because it was a pandemic-era program that was never meant to be permanent.
“This program was originally intended to be a COVID-era policy to help bridge the gap during summer months while schools were forced to close,” Wilcher said in an email to Mississippi Today.
However, Congress established the SUN Bucks program in 2024, long after the pandemic began. A brief released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture calls the program permanent. Wilcher then said that the program is “essentially the permanent continuation of Pandemic EBT.”
Kelsey Boone, a summer EBT expert with the Food Research and Action Center, said this was an incorrect — albeit common — response. SUN Bucks is based on a series of successful pilot programs dating as far back as 2011. Boone also said she believes any program proven to reduce childhood hunger should be implemented regardless of whether the country is in a pandemic.
“Summer EBT existed before pandemic EBT existed,” Boone said. “This is not a program that came out of a pandemic-era program. It is its own tested and evaluated program that is known to increase nutrition and decrease food insecurity in families.”
‘Why summer EBT was created’
Mississippi’s statewide summer meals program offers boxed lunches to children at 320 sites. Seventy-one of those locations allow families to pick up meals for the week in one trip.
The option to pick up a week’s worth of meals helps, but it doesn’t solve the problem of transportation, said Boone, which has become a greater concern amid rising gas prices. It also doesn’t address the difficulty for low-income parents needing to take time off work to go to the sites at a specific time.
The fact that 3 in 4 Mississippi children who rely on school meals don’t make it to these sites highlights significant access problems and is “why summer EBT was created,” Boone said.
Families can use EBT benefits at locations that are closer to home and shop at convenient times.
In 2024, after Reeves first opted out of SUN Bucks, a Jackson-based nonprofit called Springboard to Opportunities began its own version of the state-federal program. It currently reaches 327 families and 611 children in Jackson.
A family’s ability to pick out foods they prefer is dignifying and necessary, especially when accounting for cultural differences, said Paheadra Robinson, director of strategic initiatives at Springboard to Opportunities. Robinson believes that choice shouldn’t go away for low-income families.
“I don’t think we should be in the habit of treating people as second-class citizens simply because they have a need that is going unmet, and the government has the ability to support them in meeting that need,” Robinson said.
An internal survey conducted by Springboard to Opportunities in 2025 showed that summer EBT disbursement resulted in an 83% reduction in hunger among families who participated.
That’s the case for Jasmine Samuel, a single mother of three boys ages 4, 6 and 12.
Samuel, a lifelong Jacksonian, works at the Bingo Depot in South Jackson, and she said she struggles to make ends meet during summer. During the school year, her children rely on free school meals. When school lets out, Samuel picks up extra food and childcare costs without additional income.
Her boys are growing fast and are always asking for snacks, often immediately after leaving the table from lunch or dinner.
“I’m like, ‘I thought I had at least another 45 minutes!’” she laughed.
Samuel remembers painful experiences in her past when her children were hungry, and she knew it would be difficult to make the food in her pantry last until the next paycheck. She said she has had to come up with creative ways to keep their mind off hunger, such as making popcorn and getting them excited about watching a movie.
Before she began receiving summer EBT benefits, buying groceries was an anxiety-inducing ordeal. She would count her last dollars at the register and was often forced to put back items she could not afford as other shoppers standing in the checkout line rolled their eyes.
“I don’t like to be embarrassed at the counter … I dreaded it sometimes,” Samuel said. “I feel like now I can go grocery shopping.”
Samuel is no stranger to hard work. The youngest of four children, she began working at a grocery store at 17 to help her mother cover household expenses. She delayed going to college, and while it’s been hard to go back, she has not given up hope. In 2024, she completed partial coursework to become a pharmacist.
As a parent, Samuel said she tries to balance teaching her kids the value of hard work and protecting them from feeling stigmatized by poverty.
“It just takes a toll on you,” Samuel said.
This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Source: Original Article
