Hunger doesn’t just harm the physical health of children; it affects nearly every aspect of their lives, from self-worth to academic performance to socialization.

According to the American Psychological Association, hunger is associated with anxiety and depression in children. In adolescents, hunger is associated with depressive disorders and suicidal tendencies.

The distraction of hunger also makes schoolwork more difficult. Research has shown that hungry children have lower math scores and are more likely to repeat a grade. And being hungry while others are fed can make children feel ashamed, isolated, and inferior. Hungry children have been found to have low levels of self-efficacy, which means that they don’t believe they can achieve their goals.

Hunger doesn’t need to happen.

While temporary assistance is important, long-term legislative change will be needed to solve this problem. Sure, to the average person, the services a policy nonprofit provides is a little less tangible than what a direct-service nonprofit provides, so it needs some extra explaining. (We can’t really point to facilities or backpacks full of donated food.)

What we can point to is the kid sitting in first period, well-fed and able to focus because they could participate in the School Breakfast Program which we’ve worked to expand and curated a website to compile research and data, and provide guidance for participation.

We can point to one out of the millions of nutritious meals served to Florida’s children at their local Summer BreakSpot site during a hot summer. In fact, we can point to the Summer BreakSpot campaign, an aggressive branding of the Summer Food Service Program with the (achieved, exceeded) goal of reaching more children throughout the state. Before this branding and networking was picked up by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (yay!) we even ran a direct hotline which connected hungry kids to Summer BreakSpot sites near them. (Nowadays you can just text “FoodFL” to 877-877 to find your nearest site, by the way.)

We can point to the passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act in December 2010 when suppers were authorized nationwide as part of the Afterschool Meals Program. This was a result of relentless advocacy from Florida Impact to End Hunger and incredible community advocates and local leaders, working with our elected members of Congress.

We can point to a project currently in the works which will bring healthy foods like fresh fruits and vegetables to Florida’s food deserts…more on that soon…

And so much more.

At Florida Impact to End Hunger, we’re working to help pass laws that guarantee families and their children are provided consistent meals by law — and we won’t stop until every child is fed.

Raffaela Susi

Graphic Design (and former Summer BreakSpot Hotline Operator ?)

Florida Impact to End Hunger

Studies show pets bring a level of joy and companionship to seniors who live alone. What does this have to do with hunger-related issues the elderly face? Taking care of a pet includes feeding, grooming and veterinary care, which can be financially burdensome and physically challenging to seniors. More often than not, a devoted animal lover with limited access to food will feed their hungry pet before they feed themselves.

One of Florida Impact to End Hunger’s community partners, Meals on Wheels of South Florida, has been providing nutritious meals to seniors for 35 years. Executive Director Mark Adler explains, “The need for this type of program became apparent when our volunteers who deliver meals observed that their elderly clients were going without their full meals because they were sharing their meals with their pets.”

Acknowledging that they were on a fixed budget and many were homebound and physically unable to buy pet food, Meals on Wheels secured funding to purchase pet food from local donors and grants. Hence the beginning of the Meals for Companion Pets Program.

Once a month, free pet food is delivered to clients with a maximum of 2 pets. This is especially important to homebound seniors who have no one to shop for their pet needs. This program can keep seniors and their pets together and healthy in their own homes. Sometimes a furry friend is exactly what the doctor ordered.

Please contact Meals On Wheels South Florida at 954-731-8770 for additional information on this amazing program or visit https://www.mowsoflo.org/meals-for-companion-pets.

Post written by Sue McAllister, Regional Director of Southeast Florida, Florida Impact to End Hunger

The Florida Legislature season begins Tuesday, January 14th. For most, that won’t mean much, but for Florida Impact to End Hunger, it is a BIG day. We are supporting legislation that would provide access to nutritious meals for low-income children participating in parks and recreation programs. This sounds like a simple change but advocating for legislative change is anything but simple.

With almost 3,000 bills already filed in the House, legislators must compete to even get a bill placed on a committee calendar. After a bill is drafted, it must travel through several committees before it reaches the House floor. The same thing has to happen in the Senate with a companion bill before they are brought up for a vote by the full House and Senate. With all the bills and all the legislators trying to get heard in just 60 days, one little bill—even one that would help hungry kids—can easily get lost in the shuffle.

We are happy to have strong sponsors: House Representative Duran is behind HB 83 and Senator Book is behind SB 668. Both of them are working hard to move forward. Senator Book was able to get a vote before session even started on SB 668 from its first committee! Now that the bill is moving in the Senate, Representative Duran is optimistic that his bill will be placed on a calendar. Oh my! All this and we haven’t even started session.

Last year Senator Book filed the bill, but it didn’t move out of committee early enough, despite the fact that Florida Impact to End Hunger staff and board advocated strongly in favor of the bill’s passage. But this is the year!

You can help, too. Please take a moment (I promise, only a moment) to sign on in support of the Government Sponsored Parks and Recreation Bill here: https://forms.gle/XBEQ8HDwSJ86twVB6

Let’s make this a strong year in the fight to #EndHunger.

Trudy Novicki

President/CEO

Florida Impact to End Hunger

#HB83 #SB668

Over the past few months, I have been a member of the Census 2020 “Hard to Enumerate” Sub-Committee in Broward County. The goal of this committee is to raise awareness and improve the census 2020 count by coordinating with human services and non-profit agencies to identify and reach out to hard-to-enumerate populations and increase participation in the census.

When I first joined this committee, it was not readily apparent what role myself or Florida Impact To End Hunger would play, however, over the past couple of months, it became crystal clear how immensely important that every person, including young children are counted in the upcoming census.

I learned that in 2010, the Decennial Census missed over two million young children under age five. Census data is used to allocate over $800 billion a year in federal funding by formula to states and communities. When we miss millions of young children, their states and communities lose proper funding in the programs that help children thrive, like schools, childcare, children’s health insurance, housing, nutrition programs and public transportation for 10 years.

Think about that: the census only happens once every ten years, so if we miss millions of children who are very much in our communities, we will also be missing funding for those millions of children for a whole decade and most of their childhood.

Here are a couple of alarming statistics from the census bureau to consider:

• 22 million children get free or reduced lunch every day. Census data influences the distribution of the free lunch program.

• 900 thousand children have a better shot at succeeding in school and life because of Head Start and Early Head Start. Census data influences the distribution of Head Start funds.

Florida Impact To End Hunger mobilizes communities to maximize access to federal, state and local food and nutrition programs. With funding allocations on the line, if we miss young children in the census, it is clear that it has serious consequences for them, their families and their communities.

Young children had by far the highest net undercount of any age group in the 2010 census. I encourage and challenge you to help spread the word about the importance of this upcoming census to your whole community network. Family, pediatricians, childcare providers, family resource and guidance centers, librarians, teachers and faith based organizations!

Sue McAllister

Regional Director of Southeast Florida

Florida Impact to End Hunger

Developing our Healthy Corner Stores Project in Miami Gardens over this past year has been such an adventure! We are now on the cusp of bringing all our hard work off the drawing board and into action. As we head into year two of the CDC REACH grant, it seems like a good time to reflect on what we’ve accomplished, and where we’re heading next.

Much of our work up to this point has involved conducting a food environment survey (shout out to intern Shirbrina for all her hard work on this!), researching best practices from similar projects across the country, and developing our store and shopper incentives.

Currently, four stores form our community purchasing group, and we hope to add two more shortly. This group will purchase fresh, high quality produce from Feeding South Florida to sell in their stores to local Miami Gardens residents. This way, traditional convenience stores can offer an affordable, healthy alternative to the less nutritious products they typically sell.

As we move forward with the project, we hope to also address other types of healthy foods beyond produce. Alongside the produce procurement, we are also working to develop a brand and website, so that residents can more easily identify our healthy food retailers. This will be coupled with a marketing campaign and efforts to ensure all the stores are easily accessible by public transit. We are also working with Feeding Florida to bring Fresh Access Bucks to the stores, so that people paying for produce with SNAP can receive coupons to double the value of their SNAP dollars on healthy purchases.

Our goal is to bring all of these incentives together to roll out our healthy corner stores project in the first quarter of 2020. We’re excited to see what this year has in store (pun intended…) for us, and we hope you keep watching our progress as we work to combat food insecurity and food deserts in Miami Gardens.

– Sam Hopwood

Regional Director of South Florida

Florida Impact to End Hunger