Cherokee County Schools Announce Summer SUN Bucks Grocery Benefit for Eligible Students
CHEROKEE COUNTY — Cherokee County Schools has announced a summer grocery assistance program that will provide eligible school-age children with a preloaded SUN Bucks card to help families purchase food during the summer months.
In a statement, the school system said, “Through the Alabama SUN Bucks program, eligible school-age children will receive a one-time grocery benefit this summer. Families will receive a SUN Bucks card with the funds preloaded and ready to use for groceries.”
Eligible students will receive a one-time payment of $120 per child. The benefit will be issued on a preloaded card that families can use to purchase groceries during the summer.
“These cards will be mailed to the address on file with the student’s school. If a student has moved or their address has changed, please make sure the school has the correct address before March 2,” the post stated.
According to Alabama SUN Bucks, school-age students will be automatically enrolled if they attended a school during the 2024-2025 school year that participates in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) or School Breakfast Program (SBP) and their household meets free or reduced-price meal income guidelines. Students are also automatically eligible if their household received benefits through SNAP, TANF, Medicaid through the school demonstration project, Foster Care, Homeless, Migrant, Runaway, or Head Start programs, although not all Head Start locations participate.
Families who have not applied for or are no longer receiving any of those benefits must apply for Alabama SUN Bucks to receive the summer grocery assistance. The deadline to apply is August 15, 2025.
Alabama SUN Bucks is a partnership between the Alabama State Department of Human Resources and the Alabama Department of Education.
The program is part of USDA’s Summer Nutrition Programs for Kids and is supported in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service. USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender. The full nondiscrimination statement is available at https://www.usda.gov/non-discrimination-statement.
For additional information, including frequently asked questions, families may visit https://alabama-sunbucks.com/.
