Food Insecurity

Millions of children are going without extra food on the table this summer, after 13 states, including Florida, said no to joining a federal program that helps families in need buy groceries.

There’s been a 43% uptick in the number of people searching for free food this summer on Second Harvest’s food locator tool.

The program was created to help low-income families with groceries during the summer months, when it’s harder for children to get free meals at school. The decision to opt out, during an affordability crisis, surprised nonprofit leaders.

The nonprofit is focusing on a holistic approach to solving hunger with a state-of-the-art facility.

Florida opted out of the program for 2024 earlier this year. It's estimated the state lost out on around $250 million in food benefits for families.

At $7.03 billion, lawmakers fully funded a federal program that supports new mothers and babies. Policy experts had been anticipating a $1 billion funding shortfall.

Last year, the helpline — which is open 24 hours a day — served 11,863 callers who received nearly 19,000 referrals to community services.

Florida lawmakers are considering a pilot program to help curb food insecurity. A proposal would help charities like food banks get discounted prices for fresh food.

Federal agencies have deemed lab-grown, or cultivated, meat safe to eat. But the legislation, supported by the state’s agriculture industry, “pumps the brakes” on the food to ensure it is safe.

Wilton Simpson told a Tallahassee business group, "Imagine one week of no food in the grocery stores ... You’d have total chaos in this country."

Florida opted out of a new federal program designed to help parents pay for groceries over the summer. Stetson University's Randall Croom breaks down how food insecurity affects local families.

Eating, or satiety, is a basic physiological need. How that need is met can vary from person to person, moment to moment, and, increasingly often, is dependent on income. In Tallahassee, between its two public universities, those income and access lines can be as pronounced as the railroad tracks that divide the two schools.