Resource: Fact Sheet

2026 Alabama election guide and candidate questions

By Alabama Arise

2026 election questions

Where do candidates stand?

Meeting and talking with candidates as they campaign for your vote helps shape the conversation and let them know which issues are most important to their constituents. Below are some questions you can ask and info you can share when meeting candidates. Please let us know what you hear back!

Click here to download this resource as a PDF.

Funding public services

Alabama’s tax system is upside down. People with low incomes pay a higher share of their income in state and local taxes – double the amount paid by wealthier Alabamians. Alabama gives tax breaks and incentives to wealthy individuals and large corporations that are not accessible to low-income families and small businesses.

Alabama is the only state still providing the outdated federal income tax deduction, which costs our state $1.3 billion in lost revenue every year and overwhelmingly benefits the wealthiest households. At the same time, when Arise proposes policy solutions to help folks get ahead, we often hear lawmakers claim the state doesn’t have enough money.

Congress last year passed HR 1 (aka the One Big Beautiful Bill Act), which will cut $1.5 trillion from services like healthcare and food assistance to give more tax breaks to billionaires and highly profitable corporations. Because of this cut, Alabama may need to pay up to $261 million in additional state money to fund SNAP in 2027.

Questions for legislators or statewide candidates: Would you support getting rid of the outdated federal income tax deduction, which costs Alabama more than $1 billion a year and mostly helps wealthy households, while also ending the state grocery tax to help everyone? If not, what is your plan to untax groceries sustainably and responsibly?

Alabama is one of three states with no state dollars set aside for public transportation, and one of five with no funds directed toward affordable housing. Would you support providing dedicated state funding for affordable housing through the Alabama Housing Trust Fund, and for transportation through the Public Transportation Trust Fund?

Question for congressional candidates: Will you work to repeal the harmful spending cuts in HR 1, particularly Medicaid and SNAP cuts that will hurt Alabama for decades?

Health equity

Rural hospitals across Alabama face ongoing financial strain. More than 1 in 3 Alabama counties offer no maternity care services. Around 160,000 Alabamians fall into the health coverage gap, earning too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford private insurance. The income limit for a single parent with two children to qualify for Medicaid is just $410 a month. That leaves many working families without affordable health coverage.

Questions for legislators or statewide candidates: Do you support Medicaid expansion to keep rural hospitals open, reduce maternal and infant mortality, help families afford healthcare and help low-wage workers stay healthy enough to work? If not, what is your specific plan to stabilize rural hospitals and improve healthcare?

Questions for congressional candidates: Will you pledge to repeal the $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts passed in HR 1, protect Medicare and make health insurance more affordable?

What will you do to hold healthcare corporations accountable for high costs?

Hunger relief

More than 750,000 Alabama families use SNAP to help put food on the table. In 2025, Congress enacted HR 1, aka the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which will shift more SNAP costs onto states. Alabama may have to pay an additional $175 million next year just to ensure families continue to receive SNAP benefits.

About 1 in 6 Alabamians struggle with food insecurity, including more than 1 in 5 Alabama children. One positive step Alabama has taken in recent years is expanding no-cost school breakfast to more classrooms with increased state funding. We would like to expand this program to every school.

Questions for legislators or statewide candidates: Will you pledge to find new revenue to protect SNAP funding in next year’s state budget? Will you pledge to expand funding for no-cost school breakfast and lunch programs?

Questions for congressional candidates: Will you help families put food on the table by fighting to protect SNAP funding and roll back cuts to SNAP in HR 1? If not, what is your proposed solution to reduce hunger?

2026 election information

Key dates for the 2026 elections

Primary election: Tuesday, May 19, 2026

  • May 4 is the voter registration deadline for the primary election.
  • The election manager must receive absentee ballot applications by May 12 (by mail) or May 14 (in person).
  • Completed absentee ballots must arrive at the election manager’s office by May 18 (if hand-delivered) or by noon on May 19 (if returned by mail).

Runoff election (if necessary): Tuesday, June 16, 2026

  • May 29 is the deadline to hand-deliver a voter registration form for the runoff. June 1 is the deadline to register online or postmark registration forms delivered by mail.
  • The election manager must receive absentee ballot applications by June 9 (by mail) or June 11 (in person).
  • Completed absentee ballots must arrive at the election manager’s office by June 15 (if hand-delivered) or by noon on June 16 (if returned by mail).

General election: Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026

  • Oct. 19 is the voter registration deadline for the general election.
  • The election manager must receive absentee ballot applications by Oct. 27 (by mail) or Oct. 29 (in person).
  • Completed absentee ballots must arrive at the election manager’s office by Nov. 2 (if hand-delivered) or by noon on Nov. 3 (if returned by mail).

What to know about voter registration and absentee voting

  • Alabama’s voter registration deadline for the 2026 primary election is May 4. For the runoff election, the deadline is May 29 (hand delivery) or June 1 (online or postmarked by mail). For the general election, the deadline is Oct. 19.
  • These deadlines are both for new voters to register and for current voters to update their information if they have moved to another location within Alabama.
  • People who have faced domestic violence, or guardians of people who have faced domestic violence, may submit a form to protect their residential and mailing addresses from appearing on the public list of registered voters.
  • Alabamians are not officially registered to vote until their county board of registrars reviews and approves their application.
  • Alabamians applying for an absentee ballot must certify that they cannot vote in person on Election Day for a reason allowed under state law. Those reasons include absence from the county on Election Day or an illness that prevents a trip to the polling place.
  • Visit alabamavotes.gov to learn more about voter registration and absentee voting.

What to know for the elections

  • Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day. If you’re a registered voter in line by 7 p.m., stay in line! You’ll be allowed to vote.
  • A valid photo ID is required to vote. Visit alabamavotes.gov to learn more.
  • Alabamians can vote in either the Democratic or Republican primary, but not both. Both ballots will include proposed constitutional amendments.
  • State law forbids “crossover voting” in runoff elections. If a runoff election is necessary in June, people who vote in the Democratic primary will be able to vote only in a Democratic runoff, and people who vote in the Republican primary will be able to vote only in a Republican runoff. Voters who participate in neither party’s primary can choose to vote in either party’s runoff.
  • The crossover voting rule does not apply to the general election in November. Voters may vote for whomever they wish in the general election, regardless of which primary (if any) they participated in earlier in the year.
  • Voters’ party choice for this year’s primary election does not bind their choice for future primaries.
  • Visit alabamavotes.gov to check your voter registration and polling place, find sample ballots by county and more.

2026 Legislative Day – Close the health coverage gap: Enact policies to save lives in Alabama

By Debbie Smith

No one should have to choose between going to the doctor and putting food on the table. But for more than a decade, Alabama lawmakers have turned down the opportunity to expand Medicaid to cover adults with low incomes. This choice has cost lives, weakened our health care system and left billions of federal dollars unused.

Alabama still urgently needs Medicaid expansion to help more people get care and to keep hospitals and clinics open across the state. Unfortunately, while expansion remains essential, HR 1, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, has made financing more challenging and has increased the need for sustainable funding solutions.

Federal policy changes are reshaping Medicaid financing

Alabama remains one of only 10 states yet to expand Medicaid. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Alabamians are caught in the state’s coverage gap, earning too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford Marketplace insurance subsidies.

HR 1 eliminated a two‑year increase in the federal Medicaid match rate that would have brought Alabama an estimated $619 million in exchange for expanding coverage. This incentive would have been enough to cover at least the first two years of Medicaid expansion. Without it, expansion will cost more and will require identifying new, sustainable financing sources.

Provider tax changes create more budget constraints

HR 1 also restricts how states can use provider taxes to finance Medicaid. Under the law, Alabama would be required to reduce provider tax collections if it expanded Medicaid. This could result in the loss of more than $100 million annually in health care revenue. Alabama Arise will continue making the case that lawmakers should not pit current Medicaid enrollees against people who need coverage but cannot afford it.

Healthcare.gov enrollees face higher costs after the end of enhanced tax credits

Congress allowed enhanced Premium Tax Credits (ePTCs) for Marketplace coverage under the Affordable Care Act to expire on Dec. 31. This lapse left nearly 500,000 Alabamians facing steep increases in their monthly premiums. Early 2026 enrollment data from CMS shows that 20,000 fewer people selected Marketplace plans this year. We will not know the full number of people who have lost coverage until July, but the growing affordability crisis makes Medicaid expansion even more critical.

Persistent gaps in health coverage and outcomes

Nearly 200,000 adults remain stuck in Alabama’s coverage gap, and that number is expected to grow. Alabama also continues to rank poorly on key health outcomes, including maternal health and infant mortality. These harsh realities underscore the need for comprehensive coverage solutions.

Sustainable revenue options to fund Medicaid expansion

Even with the loss of the federal incentive, Alabama has multiple viable revenue options that can fully fund Medicaid expansion and strengthen the state’s long‑term fiscal stability. Earlier revenue analysis provides several pathways. These include:

1. Remove the state deduction for federal income taxes

Removing the state deduction for federal income tax (FIT) payments would generate $1.26 billion per year. Alabama is the only state that still allows a full FIT deduction. Eliminating it would modernize the tax code and generate enough revenue to:

  • Fully fund Medicaid expansion.
  • Pay the state share of costs for SNAP food assistance benefits.
  • Remove the remaining state sales tax on groceries.

2. Remove the state deduction for FICA payroll taxes

Removing the state deduction for FICA payroll taxes would generate $387 million in revenue per year. Alabama is one of the only states offering a full FICA deduction. Ending it would broaden the tax base and provide stable, recurring revenue for Medicaid and other essential services.

3. Other revenue options

  • Increase the cigarette tax.
  • Adopt a tax on sugar‑sweetened beverages.
  • Close corporate tax loopholes, including adopting combined reporting.
  • Ensure large landowners pay a fairer share of property taxes.

These measures would diversify Alabama’s revenue streams and help the state meet long‑term health care needs.

Bottom line

Alabama can no longer afford the cost of inaction. Health coverage gaps are widening, health outcomes are worsening and federal policy changes have made delay even more expensive. The state has clear, achievable revenue options to fund Medicaid expansion sustainably and to strengthen our entire health care system. Medicaid expansion is a choice for healthier families, stronger communities and a more resilient future for Alabama.

2026 Legislative Day – No-cost breakfast supports a strong start, strong finish for Alabama students

By Alabama Arise

Every Alabama child deserves access to breakfast 

  • About 1 in 4 school-age children in Alabama struggle with food insecurity.
  • Access to no-cost school meals is not the standard for many children in working families and is often determined by where they live.
  • Many schools are struggling to break even with the current maximum federal reimbursement for school meals.

No-cost school breakfast helps families and communities thrive

  • Since 2019, access to no-cost meals has doubled in Alabama. In that time, reading and math scores across the state have improved for children across all household income levels.
  • No-cost school breakfast reduces the stigma associated with separating and sorting students by household income.
  • Greater access to school meals helps improve student behavior and learning and reduces absenteeism.
  • Streamlined funding for school breakfast reduces paperwork and administrative costs for local school districts.
  • Continuing and increasing state investment in access to no-cost school breakfast supports local farmers and helps schools serve more local produce.

Bottom line

Every student deserves the resources they need to thrive in the classroom. Breakfast is an essential school supply, and lawmakers should appropriate the total funding necessary to fund no-cost breakfast fully for all children in Alabama public schools. Let’s support a strong start and a strong finish with no-cost breakfast for Alabama schools!

2026 Legislative Day – Vote ‘Yes’ on HB 336: Help Alabama families by ending the state grocery tax

By Alabama Arise

Why Alabama needs to untax groceries

  • The grocery tax increases hunger rates and drives many struggling families deeper into poverty.
  • Alabama’s tax system is upside down. On average, people with low incomes pay a much higher share of their income in state and local taxes than the wealthiest households do.
  • The grocery tax is a major reason that Alabama’s tax system is so upside down. Grocery taxes take a much bigger bite out of household budgets for Alabamians with low and middle incomes than for wealthier people.
  • Most states have rejected the grocery tax. Alabama is one of only nine states still taxing groceries.

How HB 336 would help people across Alabama

  • HB 336 by Rep. Penni McClammy, D-Montgomery, would end the state sales tax on groceries starting on Sept. 1, 2026. This would build on progress made in 2023, when the Legislature reduced the tax from 4% to 3%, and in 2025, when lawmakers reduced the tax again from 3% to 2%.
  • Ending the remaining 2% state grocery tax would save an average Alabama family of four about $250 to $300 a year.

Bottom line

Alabama’s grocery tax is a cruel tax on survival. Lawmakers should pass HB 336 to eliminate the state grocery tax once and for all. They also should identify more sustainable, less harmful options to fund public education and other vital services.

How the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act worsens health and hunger in Alabama communities

By Alabama Arise

HR 1, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, was signed into law on July 4, 2025. This federal law will have far-reaching consequences on many issues affecting people in our communities. Following are a few talking points focused on how HR 1 will impact health and hunger for people in Alabama.

Health

  • Did not extend enhanced tax credits that make insurance affordable for more than 400,000 Alabamians who get coverage through Healthcare.gov. Health insurance premiums more than doubled for many Alabamians, and the number of people signing up for health insurance decreased this year.
  • Made expanding Medicaid in Alabama more difficult because it removed additional federal financial incentives and restricted one of the ways that potentially could have helped our state pay for expansion.
  • Did not do enough to protect rural hospitals from closing or having to limit the services they provide. The Rural Health Transformation Fund created to help offset Medicaid cuts under the new law was not funded with enough money.

Hunger

  • Requires Alabama to provide more money to continue SNAP (food stamps). This year, lawmakers must designate millions in new funding to continue SNAP, and likely even more money in coming years. More than 750,000 Alabamians, approximately 40% of whom are children, depend on SNAP to help access food.

If lawmakers cannot or will not provide the required funding, the state will have to reduce the number of SNAP participants or opt out of the program entirely.

  • Set work requirements for certain people to receive SNAP benefits:
    • Many veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and young adults who have aged out of foster care.
    • All adults in a household with children aged 14 or older.
    • People aged 55 to 64.

We don’t know when, but those affected will get notice and opportunity to ask for an exemption.

What you can do

  • Share what you learn with others and stay informed.
  • Tell your federal and state lawmakers what you need for your community.
  • Since this is an election year, find out where candidates stand on the issues that matter most to your community. Then vote and bring others to vote with you.

Empower workers to build an economy that works for all Alabamians

By Alabama Arise

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By Dev Wakeley, worker policy advocate (dev@alarise.org), and Adam Keller, Worker Power Campaign director (adam@alarise.org)

Alabama has a history of anti-worker policies that prioritize the interests of wealthy corporations over those of working people. This top-down structure has led to our state falling behind in measurable standards of well-being.

Alabamians have shorter lifespans, worse health and lower pay than people in other states. These disparities are bad for all Alabamians, and they are significantly worse for women and Black and Hispanic people.

To move Alabama toward an economic structure that values worker well-being and uplifts workers’ voices in their workplaces, Alabama Arise is working to advance policies to improve working conditions and stop common types of worker abuse. These policies include:

  • Remove tax incentives from bad-actor companies that break the law and violate workers’ rights. Our state hands out corporate tax breaks that often lack key accountability mechanisms to ensure companies are creating good jobs with this public money. This amount can reach into the hundreds of millions for individual companies, including some money that ends up benefiting companies that violate child labor laws. Arise will support a bill to remove tax incentives from companies that benefit from illegal – and often physically dangerous – employment of children, and to deny them eligibility for future incentives.
  • Expand paid leave to cover more workers and apply to more needs. Lawmakers last year implemented paid parental leave for state workers, K-12 teachers and staff, and two-year college workers. Arise will seek to keep momentum going to expand paid family leave to cover more workers across Alabama and to apply to additional caregiving needs.
  • Create protections for temp workers. Temp workers are routinely subject to greater abuses than the working population generally. This tiered system pays temp workers poorly, undermines worker solidarity and mires them in insecurity. Arise will support policies to improve conditions for temp workers and boost pathways for them to transition into more permanent roles.

Working Alabamians are the heart of our economy. Improving working conditions and empowering workers will build a better, more vibrant future for everyone.

Alabama’s tax system is upside down and needs real reform

By Carol Gundlach

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Alabama’s tax structure is among the nation’s most unfair and unjust. The state is heavily reliant on regressive sales taxes on consumer goods that account for a larger share of spending for households with low incomes. Our state continues to tax groceries, though at a lower rate than other goods after grocery tax reductions in 2023 and 2025. And Alabama does not tax numerous services that people with higher incomes more often purchase.

Our state’s income tax is almost flat for all but the lowest-paid families, so we rely too heavily on steeply regressive sales taxes to fund K-12 schools and higher education. And Alabama gives generous income tax breaks to wealthy individuals and highly profitable corporations. This includes a full deduction for federal income tax (FIT) payments, which provides the largest benefits to the wealthiest few. Alabama is the only state that still allows this deduction.

Alabama’s property taxes are capped at low rates, providing huge tax breaks to highly profitable multistate corporations that own much of the timber acreage in the state. And our corporate income tax structure gives big tax breaks to large manufacturers and industries.

The result is an upside-down tax system that requires the most from those with the least. Alabamians with low and moderate incomes pay nearly 12% of their incomes in state and local taxes on average, while the wealthiest pay just 5.4% on average.

The state’s tax structure hurts everyday Alabamians who are struggling to make ends meet. It also fails to generate enough revenue for basic needs like education and health care. Arise members voted to prioritize these essential tax reforms for 2026:

  • Untax groceries by removing the remaining 2% state sales tax on food.
  • Pursue replacement tax revenue for our public schools and other critical state needs, including capping or eliminating the federal income tax (FIT) deduction. This break disproportionately slashes taxes for the wealthy and costs our education budget more than $1 billion each year.
  • Oppose further tax expenditures for private education while protecting revenue that supports public schools.
  • Explore and support comprehensive income tax reforms that raise needed revenue to invest in essential state services while reducing taxes overall for Alabamians with low and moderate incomes.

Alabama’s justice system should focus on rehabilitation, not cruelty

By Dev Wakeley

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Alabama’s criminal justice system too often prioritizes punishment over evidence-based interventions. This cruel orientation has fueled heavy-handed sentencing policies and a broken parole system. And it has led to a death penalty system where state officials continue to kill prisoners against the recommendation of the juries that convicted them.

In 2021, lawmakers spent $400 million of federal COVID-19 aid money on prison construction instead of building systems that address overcrowding and reduce the number of prison cells needed. This type of punitive focus, at the expense of rehabilitation, enables widespread exploitation of people who are incarcerated. It also failed to address the longstanding abuses in  Alabama’s prisons and jails, as the harrowing HBO documentary The Alabama Solution recently showed the world.

Alabama Arise supports efforts to improve all parts of the state’s justice system. Policies we will support in the 2026 legislative session include:

  • Make Alabama’s judicial override ban retroactive. A 2017 state law barred judges from sentencing defendants in capital murder cases to death if a jury recommends a sentence of life imprisonment without parole. But the ban did not apply to people sentenced to death before the law’s enactment. More than two dozen people sent to death row under this now-illegal practice remain there today.
  • Reform the Habitual Felony Offender Act (HFOA). Lawmakers should modernize sentencing practices to ensure the state does not impose prison sentences that are wildly disproportionate to the offense. The HFOA, a relic of long-discredited oversentencing practices, keeps people locked up long after they are ready for release. That practice contributes to overcrowding and violence in prisons. It also facilitates abuses similar to those under the state’s old convict leasing system, a racist practice implemented after Reconstruction ended.
  • Repair the state’s broken Board of Pardons and Paroles. The board modified release guidelines in 2025 to try to insulate itself from criticism for its persistent failure to release people who are ready to rejoin society. Previously, the board released fewer than 30% of petitioners who its own guidelines recommended for release.

Arise will continue advocating for the Legislature to reject shortsighted policies that enable human rights abuses. We will urge lawmakers to work instead to build a more sensible justice system for Alabama that protects public safety and respects human rights.

An inclusive democracy is vital to building a better Alabama for all

By Dev Wakeley

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Alabama was central to the struggle for democracy and voting rights in the United States during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. And the need for our state to do more to build a more inclusive democracy continues today. That is especially true after recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions affecting the rights of people nationwide to have their say in who represents them at the local, state and federal levels.

The court’s Shelby County v. Holder ruling in 2012 weakened the Voting Rights Act significantly. After that decision, Alabama no longer was required to get federal permission (known as preclearance) before changing its voting rules. Since then, the state has acted repeatedly to make it harder for many people to vote.

Alabama Arise supports legislation to increase participation in our democracy by removing barriers to voting. In 2026, we will support legislative solutions including::

  • No-excuse absentee voting. This would remove the need for voters to specify a reason for absentee voting.
  • Early voting. This would give voters more time to participate in elections.
  • Greater accessibility for voters with disabilities. Lawmakers should remove recent legal barriers that could have a chilling effect on people and groups acting in good faith to help voters who request assistance with absentee voting.
  • Lift barriers to voting rights restoration. Legislators should require relevant state agencies to post information to assist disenfranchised Alabamians in navigating the process to restore their voting rights.

Bills requiring agencies to share info on voter rights restoration processes have advanced during previous sessions. This legislation would be an important next step toward increasing civic participation.

Alabama has a painful history of enacting policies that have made voting more inaccessible for older adults, people with disabilities, and Black and Hispanic people. Lawmakers should turn away from this harmful, divisive path and work instead to pass pro-democracy reforms to remove barriers to voting. These improvements would move our state away from its shameful past and toward a brighter future where every Alabamian can have a say in our democracy and stay engaged in the policymaking process.

Federal SNAP cuts underscore Alabama’s need to protect and increase food access

By LaTrell Clifford Wood

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Alabama’s food insecurity rates are among the worst in the country. More than 1 in 6 people in our state (17%) face food insecurity, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. And that share is even larger for children: Nearly 1 in 4 Alabama children (23%) live in households with food insecurity.

Food assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are especially important to help struggling families make ends meet and keep food on the table across our state. And school meals provide vital nutrition for hundreds of thousands of children, helping them learn and grow.

In 2026, Alabama Arise will support stronger investments in child nutrition. This includes legislation to ensure continued funding for SUN Bucks and increased flexibility for schools to provide no-cost meals to all of their students. Arise also will advocate to protect SNAP and oppose additional red tape for participants.

SNAP threats grow, even as food prices continue to rise

SNAP benefits lapsed for the first time ever amid a federal government shutdown in November 2025. This lapse temporarily left more than 750,000 Alabamians without food assistance. In Alabama, more than 67% of SNAP participants are in families with children, while more than 39% of participants are in families with an older adult or a person with a disability.

HR 1, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, poses longer-term federal threats to SNAP. The law shifts costs to states while limiting or ending access for many families with children, older adults, veterans, and people with disabilities. In Alabama, lawmakers will have to appropriate $35 million a year to cover the larger share of administrative costs shifted to the state.

People seeking asylum (including those fleeing domestic violence) who are legally in the United States will no longer be eligible for SNAP, with few exemptions. Some people between ages 60 and 65 who have received special SNAP benefits may face more barriers to participation. And people who purchase groceries with SNAP will continue to receive an average of only $6 a day indefinitely, even as prices continue to increase.

Under HR 1, the following groups will no longer be exempt from burdensome work reporting requirements to receive SNAP benefits:

  • Veterans 
  • People with disabilities
  • People experiencing homelessness 
  • Young adults who age out of foster care
  • Adults in households with children as young as 14
  • People aged 55 to 64

Some state lawmakers are proposing even more SNAP limits. Rep. Reed Ingram, R-Montgomery, has prefiled HB 31, which would restrict the items that SNAP benefits can purchase.

We must continue to expand access to school meals

Arise members voted overwhelmingly to support increased access to no-cost school meals in 2026. School meals are an especially vital lifeline for families experiencing hunger. School meals also help ensure a stable learning environment for all Alabama children.

Since 2019, nearly 270,000 Alabama children have gained access to no-cost school meals, nearly doubling access. More than 2 in 3 Alabama students attend a school that offers no-cost school meals, according to the Food Research and Action Center. 

During the same time period:

  • Alabama has shown more growth in fourth-grade math than any other state since 2019, according to the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA).
  • Alabama is one of two states where public school fourth-graders are scoring higher in both reading and math than they did prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, PARCA found.
  • Among Alabama students in grades 3-8, both students who are experiencing poverty and those who are not saw improvements in both math and reading performance from 2019-24, according to the Education Recovery Scorecard compiled by researchers from Harvard University and Stanford University. 

Providing school breakfast at all public schools would be an important step to improve child nutrition and student success. School breakfast reduces chronic absenteeism, improves standardized testing and math scores and reduces behavioral problems.

The Legislature appropriated $7.3 million in 2025 to expand access to no-cost school breakfasts for more public schools. More than 190,000 children in schools across Alabama benefited last fall from this investment in making school meals more readily available.

Alabama schools served 2.8 million more school meals last year than in 2024. We must continue to improve upon these investments to ensure every Alabama child has an opportunity to learn and grow to their fullest potential.

SUN Bucks are a summer lifeline for Alabama children

Arise members sent thousands of messages to their legislators in 2024, advocating successfully for the state administrative funding needed to implement SUN Bucks (a.k.a. Summer EBT). Alabama administered the SUN Bucks program for the first time in summer 2025.

Children were automatically eligible to receive SUN Bucks if the child’s household received assistance under Medicaid, SNAP, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and/or the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR), or if the child was in foster care or experiencing homelessness.

The program was a resounding success in its first year. In 2025, 476,000 Alabama children received $120 to purchase groceries over the summer months. That money reduced hunger and boosted the economy. Both SNAP and SUN Bucks generate $1.50 to $1.80 in local economic activity for every dollar spent. In 2025 alone, SUN Bucks had a $85.5 million to $102.6 million impact on Alabama’s economy.

Bottom line

School meals, SNAP and SUN Bucks are good for families and good for the economy. Alabama must continue to invest in these vital nutrition programs in 2026 and beyond.