Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida is expanding its school partnerships program, which feeds kids inside of local public school districts, with a new school market opening Thursday at a Volusia County public school.
So far, Second Harvest has partnered with 85 local K-12 schools and even some colleges in the region to feed students and families through its school partnerships program.
That number increased Thursday with a new market opening up at Daytona Beach’s Campbell Middle School in “The Shield,” a resource hub on campus.
Students can “shop” for free food at the market, for themselves and their families. Once a month on Thursdays, the market will also hold a drop-off event for fresh produce, where families can drive up and get a bag of fruits and vegetables.
And the market provides weekend bags of food for students, their parents and siblings.
The food bank’s Briana Rebello said with SNAP benefits delayed and some Head Start centers closed due to the government shutdown, it’s important for schools and food banks to make sure kids are fed.
“I definitely hear from my schools that the need is growing. They're seeing more and more need, and they're wanting to place more frequent orders,” Rebello said. “If I can say that the need is more already, the longer this goes, the greater that need is going to be. And so we're left trying to figure out, how are we possibly going to fill this gap?”
Rebello said even before the shutdown, 58 schools were on the waitlist to partner with Second Harvest to provide food to their kids. That number grows daily.
She said schools are the ideal place to feed kids and meet communities where they’re at.
“We do have over 870 feeding partners throughout our service area, but for students, if you're thinking about access, they might not have cars or families that can take them to some of our feeding partners, so being able to meet them where they're at every day is really important,” Rebello said.
She said even before the shutdown one in six young people was at risk of going hungry in Central Florida.
Experts expect that number to grow, with every passing day of the shutdown, as struggling families miss out on a variety of different federal benefits they’re used to from SNAP, to WIC, to Head Start to housing and rental assistance.
“When we're talking about, the government shutdown, or a pause in benefits, or lapse in benefits, we know that that's going to impact our neighbors, our children, the students,” Rebello said. “And if SNAP is nine times more effective than food banking, imagine the toll that that's going to take on these students and families.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis says Florida won’t be releasing emergency food assistance to help feed kids and adults who rely on federal benefits for food.
Instead, he says the Florida Department of Agriculture will funnel more food to food banks. Local food banks say they’re grateful for the extra food, but they’re already at capacity when it comes to the number of people they can serve.
Both DeSantis and local food banks are calling on Congress to open the government back up again, and release food aid. The government shutdown is now the longest in U.S. history, having started on October 1.
Federal judges ordered the Trump administration to pay for 50% of SNAP benefits, although the administration has signaled it may continue to withhold those benefits.
Almost half a million Orange County residents including children rely on SNAP benefits for food and milk. In Florida, that number is 3 million.
