DC Department of Human Services
DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education
Child hunger increases over the summer when students lose access to school breakfasts and lunches. To bridge the summer hunger gap, the District launched SUN Bucks in 2024. The program provides each eligible student a $120 benefit card to buy groceries. The Lab @ DC partnered with the Office of the State Superintendent for Education, the Department of Human Services, and the Office of Planning to make it easy for residents to access SUN Bucks benefits.
Photo Credit: USDA
Why is this issue important in DC?
Roughly 80,000 DC children who would be eligible for free or discounted meals at school are at higher risk of hunger when schools close for the summer.1 SUN Bucks is an evidence-based way to reduce child hunger. A federal government study found that summer food benefits decrease food insecurity by more than one-third for students with low incomes.2
SUN Bucks is one piece of the District’s efforts to reduce child hunger. DC students can also use programs like summer meal sites and the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP). SUN Bucks works together with these programs to make up for lost school meals during the summer.
What did we do?
The Lab designed the 2024 digital forms that residents used to apply for benefits and ask questions about the program. The forms were mobile-friendly, simple, and took 10 minutes to complete, on average. We also helped create a way to review applications efficiently and accurately, so students quickly got decisions about their eligibility. We wrote a report on 2024 program outcomes.
What have we learned?
Three out of four eligible students received benefits in the program’s first year. This high rate of participation was largely because the District used data we already have to automatically enroll students in SUN Bucks (i.e., from other programs their families participate in, like SNAP or TANF). This meant that many families did not need to submit an application to get their benefits. They were automatically mailed a card loaded with the benefits.
What comes next?
SUN Bucks is a new, permanent federally-funded benefit program that the District plans to continue to offer in 2025 and beyond. DHS will use the application we created as the basis for the 2025 form.
In 2025, the District is exploring ways to use even more existing government data to automatically enroll a larger group of students and streamline the review and approval process.
What happened behind the scenes?
Because the application for benefits was online, we were able to see where mistakes were being made in real time. To make it convenient, we let parents tell us their income over whatever time period was easiest for them—week, biweekly, month, year. Then, an eligibility checker did the math to figure out their annual income. But we noticed our questions about income confused some--about 5% of parents gave us their annual income but said they got that amount biweekly. As a result, our eligibility checker mistakenly told them they made too much money for the program. We quickly adjusted the application and saw a 33% decrease in the error. Monitoring applications as they were submitted allowed us to make the form clearer for parents quickly. Read more about this and other application improvements in the 2024 report.
“The District is improving opportunities for our children and teens to access healthy, culturally relevant food while they’re in school and out. SUN Bucks is a key part of supporting families to thrive during the summer.”