Summer_2025_SUN_Bucks_Memorandum
To: Local Education Agencies (LEAs)
From: Robert M. Leshin
Director, Office for Food and Nutrition Programs
Date: June 11, 2025
Subject: SUN Bucks for Summer 2025
On April 25, 2025, Massachusetts was approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to provide SUN Bucks (formally known as Summer EBT) benefits to eligible households during summer 2025.
SUN Bucks provides grocery-buying benefits, in the amount of a $120-lump sum per child, for income-eligible families with school-aged children for the summer period. The program is administered by the state Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) in partnership with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) with assistance from schools. SUN Bucks complements the Summer Eats program, which provides free meals to kids and teens in eligible areas all summer long.
SUN Bucks’ income eligibility standards are the same as the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). As such, all enrolled students identified as meeting the income eligibility standards for free or reduced price lunch during School Year 2024-2025, either through an NSLP household paper application or direct certification, are automatically eligible for SUN Bucks. Students identified as homeless, migrant, runaway or Head Start are also automatically eligible.
NOTE: For Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) schools, only families of students identified as free or reduced price eligible through direct certification will be automatically eligible (streamlined certification) for SUN Bucks, as will students identified as homeless, migrant, runaway or Head Start.
IMPORTANT: Families with students directly certified for free or reduced price meals in both CEP and non-CEP schools have already been notified by DTA. Benefits will be issued without district or family involvement.
Districts will need to report to DESE all students who were approved for free or reduced price meals through a paper NSLP application, as well as currently enrolled students identified as homeless, migrant, runaway or Head Start. DESE’s Student Data Services provided district data coordinators guidance on how to report these students to DESE.
Families of currently enrolled students not matched through streamlined certification may apply for SUN Bucks benefits via the DTA Connect web-based SUN Bucks application. A paper SUN Bucks application can also be downloaded and made available to families.
How to Help Families in your Community
Communicate to families that SUN Bucks supplements the Summer Eats program. Recipients of SUN Bucks can and should also participate in the Summer Eats program in eligible areas.
Communicate to families who are not streamlined or automatically eligible for SUN Bucks s o that they can apply t h r o u g h DTA Connect, if eligible.
Promote SUN Bucks to your families through social media, newsletters, and email using SUN Bucks outreach materials.
Print copies of DTA’s SUN Bucks Poster and make them visible at your Summer Eats sites, family welcome centers and other high foot traffic locations.
For more information on SUN Bucks, please refer to: Massachusetts Summer EBT Program | Mass.gov.
For Frequently Asked Questions, please refer to: Summer EBT FAQ | Mass.gov.