1 in 5
kids in Wyoming face hunger
End Summer Hunger for Kids in Wyoming
When school is out, many children lose access to the free or reduced-price meals they receive during the school year, making summer one of the hungriest times of year for kids. Communities use a combination of programs to help fill this gap, but in Wyoming, families are missing something important: SUN Bucks, which the state has not yet chosen to implement.
SUN Bucks provides eligible Wyoming families with $120 per child for the summer. The program could reach an estimated 32,000 eligible kids in the state.
If state lawmakers opt in, Wyoming could receive around $3.8 million in federal dollars, directly boosting local economies, especially in rural communities. Based on current estimates, that’s an expected economic impact of up to $6 million for the state.
While summer should be a time for fun and growth, for too many kids in Wyoming, it’s a time of uncertainty. When school is out, families lose access to school meals, and the gap is often hardest in rural areas. While Wyoming offers summer food programs, they’re only available at select sites, which means they can’t reach every corner of the state.
SUN Bucks changes that. Each eligible child receives $120 for the summer, giving families the flexibility to buy the foods their kids actually need, without worrying about transportation to meal sites, stigma, or limited meal site hours.
Even a few months without this support can have lasting effects. Families often stretch limited resources, skip meals, or make impossible trade-offs.
This is a problem we can solve. State lawmakers have a clear choice: provide families with SUN Bucks support, or let 32,000 of children face another summer without the healthy meals they need to thrive.
