California — if you’ve got kids in school, there may be $120 per child in grocery money sitting on a card you never activated, and it’s about to expire.
The money comes from SUN Bucks, the federal summer food program that mails eligible California families an EBT card loaded with $120 in grocery benefits for each child. Children qualify if they’re eligible for free or reduced-price school meals or enrolled in CalFresh, Medi-Cal or similar programs, and most families got the card automatically — no application needed.
Here’s the clock: the money expires 122 days after it’s loaded onto the card. Cards loaded in mid-June run out in the next couple of weeks, and the last cards, mailed in late July, expire in mid-November. Whatever’s left when the deadline hits goes back to the federal government, and expired benefits can’t be replaced.
Statewide, nearly $106 million was still unspent as of early October, according to the Department of Social Services. Last year, nearly a quarter of the benefits went unused, and nearly a fifth of the cards mailed were never activated, according to state records obtained by policy consultant David Rubel and shared with CalMatters.
The state’s advice: if your household gets both SUN Bucks and CalFresh, spend the SUN Bucks first, because they expire sooner, Social Services spokesperson Jason Montiel told CalMatters.
What to do now: find the card — it looks like a regular EBT card — and check the balance on the California EBT cardholder website or the ebtEDGE mobile app, or call the number on the back of the card. The money buys the same foods as CalFresh — groceries, but not hot or prepared foods — at grocery stores, farmers markets and any retailer that takes EBT.
If you can’t find the card, or you think your child qualified but a card never arrived, call the SUN Bucks helpline at (877) 328-9677 — that’s eight seven seven, three two eight, nine six seven seven. It’s automated around the clock, with live agents Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.. The helpline can replace a lost, stolen or damaged card, and families who were eligible but never received a card should call by the end of November. Using SUN Bucks doesn’t affect anyone’s immigration status.
Most other states run SUN Bucks too, each on its own schedule with its own deadlines.
The money is already yours. Check the card, and if you can’t find it, call (877) 328-9677 — eight seven seven, three two eight, nine six seven seven — before it runs out.
Drafted by News Observed Editorial AI, human reviewed and published.