If Florida invests in children and families, our state will reap the dividends | Opinion

The numbers don’t lie: Those living in food-insecure households drastically increased from 2021 to 2022, skyrocketing from 9 million to 13 million children, while child poverty rates more than doubled during the same time.

In our state, more than three-quarters of Floridians are reporting that it’s harder to buy food this year than last, due to because of the rising costs of food and everyday essentials. The same trends are showing up here in South Florida, with Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties all experiencing higher levels of food insecurity than the state average.

This should be a wake-up call for our decision makers. We now have some of the best tools in the toolbox to reverse this alarming trend — but we need to make sure we’re maximizing them.

During the pandemic, smart policies like the enhanced Child Tax Credit and expanded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits had an incredible impact on our communities. Unfortunately, many of these changes were short lived and, with the benefits’ expiration, we are seeing increased rates of poverty and hunger.

Families are being forced to make difficult decisions, such as whether to pay their rent or buy groceries, struggling to put food on the table and skipping meals to ensure their children get the nutrition they need. These are our neighbors, coworkers and friends. As we head into a new year, opportunities and challenges lie ahead that will have a real impact on our kids.

Though Congress averted a crisis by passing a continuing resolution to fund the federal government, we have many major policy decisions on the horizon that will impact millions of families. Most notably, we need lawmakers to fully fund the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, so it can continue to provide qualifying kids and moms with the resources to buy things such as formula, milk and fresh produce.

In Florida, WIC supports more than 400,000 children, infants and moms, and without additional funding, families could face wait lists for the first time in three decades. If the WIC program doesn’t receive sufficient funding, Florida is estimated to turn away 126,000 kids and moms next year, more than any other state besides California and Texas.

Despite a brutal year for food benefits, we did see a significant bipartisan win for kids across the country and particularly in Monroe County: the implementation of a permanent, nationwide non-congregate option for summer meal programs. This change allowed rural schools and community organizations the flexibility to feed kids in the ways that work best for their community, like delivering meals to the home or providing meals for several days at a time. This is a game-changer in Madison, Gulf, Taylor and Monroe counties, where families often travel many miles to reach a summer meal site. While this decision came too late for many summer meal programs, we look forward to seeing the difference it makes in children’s lives this coming summer.

Summer EBT is another opportunity on the horizon. It’s a new federal nutrition program that provides families with grocery benefits while school is out for the summer.

Florida has just weeks to opt into this innovative program, which could impact almost 2 million kids and feed more than $240 million federal dollars into local businesses across the state. But the clock is ticking as Florida’s Jan. 1 deadline nears.

Back in Washington, Congress has major policy decisions that have high stakes for families experiencing hunger. Through the appropriations process and the Farm Bill reauthorization, decisions will be made that impact both WIC and SNAP. The latest budget extender forestalled a federal government shutdown and kicked that fight into the new year, but for many families, it is far from over.

I hope our elected leaders tune in to the difficulties many families are experiencing right now. With 2024 just around the corner, the decisions to come will impact millions of families. They have the opportunity to support smart solutions that can maximize our best practices and connect more kids with the nutrition they need.

It’s time for us to invest in our future. We must protect the programs we know work, improve and strengthen them to reverse the alarming trend in child poverty and hunger.

Florida’s future is counting on it.

Sky Beard is director of No Kid Hungry Florida.