Summer Hunger Gap Hits Millions of Kids as 13 States Skip Summer EBT

With school out, about 10.1 million children in 13 states miss Summer EBT grocery benefits as food banks brace for a summer surge worsened by SNAP cuts.

Summer Hunger Gap Hits Millions of Kids as 13 States Skip Summer EBT With school out, about 10.1 million children in 13 states miss Summer EBT grocery benefits as food banks brace for a summer surge worsened by SNAP cuts. Aaron Rafferty June 26, 2026 Key Takeaways: About 10.1 million children in the 13 states that opted out of Summer EBT will miss the $120-per-child grocery benefit this summer, leaving an estimated $1.2 billion unclaimed, according to FRAC . No Kid Hungry estimates children could miss 95 million summer meals, and 1 in 3 parents say they worry about running out of food when school is out. Food banks are bracing for a summer surge as the 2025 budget law's $187 billion SNAP cut, the largest since 1964, pulls benefits from families with children. School is out, and for millions of children the free meals that came with it are gone until fall. About 10.1 million kids in the 13 states that declined to run Summer EBT this year will not receive the program's $120-per-child grocery benefit, the Food Research and Action Center estimates, leaving roughly $1.2 billion in federal food aid on the table. Summer EBT, also called SUN Bucks, is the permanent federal program that loads $120 onto a card for each eligible child to replace school meals over the break. Thirty-seven states, Washington DC, five tribal nations, and the territories are running it for about 21 million children. The 13 that opted out, including Texas, Florida, Georgia, and Wyoming, leave their lowest-income families to find food elsewhere. No Kid Hungry estimates children could miss 95 million meals this summer, and its survey found 1 in 3 parents worried about running out of food when school is closed, up sharply from two years ago. Summer has always been the hungriest season for kids who