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From the voting booth to the kitchen table, explore how elections shape the cost of everyday life in Central Florida.

What if understanding how you should vote started with your grocery bill?

Every election season, candidates promise to lower costs, create jobs, improve health care, and make life more affordable.

But what do those promises actually mean for your household?

For your rent or mortgage.
Your insurance bill.
Your grocery budget.
Your child's future.

The financial decisions you make around your own kitchen table.

On Thursday, August 13, Central Florida Public Media invites you to experience politics in a way that's deeply personal.

From 6:00–7:00 p.m., you'll participate in immersive, hands-on activities inspired by real stories our journalists have reported across Central Florida. Step into the shoes of residents navigating rising costs, unexpected life events, and difficult financial tradeoffs. As new challenges unfold, you'll make the same difficult decisions many families face every day and explore how the decisions we make in the voting booth shapes our everyday life.

Then, from 7:00–8:00 p.m., join Cheryn Stone, host of Engage, for a community conversation that brings those experiences into focus. Together with a panel of Florida leaders and policy experts, we'll explore how the issues affecting your household connect to the decisions made in Tallahassee and beyond.

PANELISTS:

Cheryn Stone
Host, Engage (Moderator)

Dick Batchelor
Former Member, Florida House of Representatives and longtime public affairs leader

Stephen Masyada
Lou Frey Institute

Jeff Brandes
Former Florida State Senator and President, Florida Policy Project

Together, they'll unpack the policies, priorities, and tradeoffs shaping issues including:

• The rising cost of food
• Housing affordability and property taxes
• Economic opportunity and the challenges facing new graduates entering today's job market

It's about helping you better understand how the choices made at the ballot box can show up around your kitchen table.

Whether you're voting for the first time or the fiftieth, you'll leave with a deeper understanding of the connection between public policy and everyday life, and perhaps a new perspective on the difficult decisions your neighbors are making every day.

Come curious. Bring your questions. Leave with a new perspective.