The Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer program (SUN Bucks) provides grocery-buying benefits to low-income families with school-aged children who lose access to free or reduced-price school meals when schools are closed for the summer. This program is a partnership between the Arizona Department of Education, the Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES), and the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service.

All families with school aged children that meet SUN Bucks eligibility requirements and are determined eligible during the school Fiscal Year 07/01/2024 through 06/30/2025 receive a one-time payment of $120 for each eligible child. The one-time payment is placed on an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card.

Families with eligible school aged children already receiving NA or CA benefits can expect benefits to be issued beginning 05/07/2025. The benefit is paid to the existing NA or CA case, and participants should expect to receive a letter in May about the benefit.

Families with school aged children who are not eligible for automatic SUN Bucks enrollment, but attend an eligible National School Lunch Program (NSLP) or Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) school, are able to visit https://www.azed.gov/SUNBucks or https://des.az.gov/sunbucks to apply for the benefit starting in 04/2025. Families who have applied and are determined to have SUN Bucks eligible children are issued SUN Bucks benefits within 15 business days of the date of application.

An eligible school aged child includes any child who meets any of the following criteria at any time during the school Fiscal Year 07/01/2024 through 06/30/2025:

Participating in SUN Bucks does not impact the child’s ability to participate in the Summer Meals program.

Staff may receive phone calls from interested families or participants with questions regarding this program. Notices were created and are to be mailed out to notify participants of the availability of the SUN Bucks benefits. DES established a toll free number at 1 (833) 648-4406 for customer support.

SUN Bucks is paying benefits per family whenever possible. Participants should expect one card per household in most cases. The covered Summer-EBT period for 2025 is 05/21/2025 through 08/05/2025.

SUN Bucks benefits will be expunged 122 days after being issued. The SUN Bucks benefits are the first spent benefits on any EBT card, before regular NA benefits. Families should keep their EBT card as it can be used again for Summer-EBT period 2026, when the family is still eligible.