Thank You, LAMA Advocates: Hunger Relief Wins in Arizona’s FY2027 Budget
Because of faithful advocacy across Arizona, the FY2027 state budget includes important wins for neighbors facing hunger and food insecurity.
Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in Arizona is grateful for the many advocates, congregations, ministry partners, and community leaders who spoke up this year for a state budget that better reflects our shared responsibility to care for one another. Your emails, calls, meetings, prayers, testimony, and public witness helped keep hunger relief on the agenda — and that work mattered.
The final FY2027 Arizona budget includes:
$3.0 million in Food Bank Capital Assistance to help strengthen the infrastructure food banks need to store, transport, and distribute food across Arizona.
$1.8 million for Summer SNAP $120 Payment Food Benefit, also known as SUN Bucks, helping families with children buy groceries during the summer months when school meals are not available.
$2.0 million for the Produce Incentive Program, also known as Double Up Food Bucks, which helps families stretch their food dollars while supporting access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
These investments are not abstract budget lines. They mean more food on the table for children during the summer. They mean stronger food banks in urban, rural, and tribal communities. They mean families using SNAP can bring home more healthy produce. They mean the public good is served when Arizona chooses to reduce hunger.
For Lutherans, this work is rooted in our faith. We believe that every person is created in the image of God, that food is a basic human need, and that government has an important role in helping communities thrive. When we advocate for hunger relief, we are not asking for charity alone; we are calling for justice, dignity, and wise stewardship of public resources.
We also know this work is not finished. Too many Arizona families still struggle with high food costs, housing instability, extreme heat, and gaps in access to health care and nutrition assistance. But these budget wins are real, and they show what is possible when people of faith and conscience raise their voices together.
Thank you, LAMA advocates, for helping make these investments possible. Thank you for showing up for hungry neighbors. Thank you for reminding lawmakers that budgets are moral documents. And thank you for continuing to build an Arizona where all people can be fed, housed, healthy, and treated with dignity.
Together, we will keep advocating for the common good.