After a round table lunch at Oak Grove Elementary School in Cary on Monday, a group of advocates called for a total of $4.4 million in state funding to support the N.C. Farm to School Program and SUN Bucks, also known as Summer EBT.
At a press conference in the library of Oak Grove, Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, D-Wake, said $2.5 million of the request is for the N.C. Farm to School Program to partly replace lost funding due to federal cuts. The other $1.9 million would satisfy North Carolina’s requirement to continue operating SUN Bucks, which provides $120 in grocery benefits per eligible child during the summer.
In March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) canceled a program that would have provided $18.9 million to North Carolina over the next three years to purchase local food for schools, including $12.4 million for K-12 schools and $6.5 million for child care facilities…