Students Face Summer Hunger
Summer can bring a welcome break from the classroom for kids, but for many, summer is also the time of year when hunger hits hardest. Young people who depend on school for meals no longer have routine access to that food once the academic year ends. More than half of kindergarten, elementary, and middle school kids in Florida were eligible for free or reduced priced lunches last year according to the Florida Department of Health.
Engage stopped by a site in Orlando participating in a state supported summer food service program. Summer BreakSpot sites provide free meals to those 18 and under while school is out. Kids and teens do not have to apply or register to get the food. The sites are operated by nonprofits that distribute the meals and get reimbursed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. New Image Youth Center in Orlando is one of those Summer BreakSpot sites. It’s a year-round organization to mentor and support kids in the community. The nonprofit offers academic, after-school, and summer camp programs. We were at the center in Parramore on Tuesday for the first day of summer meal distribution. Founder Shanta Barton-Stubbs talks about the importance of the program in the community.
For the second year in a row, Florida is not participating in a federal Summer EBT program called SUN Bucks. That program provides qualified families with an additional $120 per child for food over the summer to fight food insecurity. No Kid Hungry, a nonprofit focused on tackling food insecurity and child hunger, reports one in five children in Florida lives in food-insecure homes. Sky Beard is the Florida Director for No Kid Hungry. She joins Engage to discuss the impact of the decision, concerns about potential cuts to SNAP benefits being considered by lawmakers, and solutions.
The Pitch for MLB in Orlando
Efforts are underway to bring Major League Baseball to Orange County. A group of investors calling themselves the Orlando Dreamers have raised, by their account, 2.5 billion dollars to bring a team and build a new stadium adjacent to SeaWorld. This is happening as the future of the Rays in Tampa is in question. Team owner Stu Sternberg wants a new stadium after the roof of Tropicana Field was destroyed by Hurricane Milton in October. The 35-year-old stadium had been home to the Rays since 1998. Sternberg’s negotiations with the city of Tampa for a new stadium have hit an impasse. The Dreamers are bringing some of Florida’s biggest investors to the table. Personal injury attorney John Morgan and national dental chain founder Rick Workman are ponying up the lion’s share of the 2.5 billion dollars. Former Major League all-star Barry Larkin has been tapped to be the face of the operation. Jim Schnorf, Chief Operations Officer for the Dreamers, joins Engage to discuss why the pitch is gaining momentum and concerns about the public role in building a stadium.
Orange County Commissioner Mike Scott sees a community benefit, but he wants to learn more before making a financial commitment on behalf of Orange County taxpayers. He joins Engage to discuss the potential for professional baseball in the region.
The Dreamers claim their proposal would generate 25,000 jobs and 40 billion dollars in revenue over 30 years. Dennis Coates, a professor of economics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, coauthored a widely cited 2022 report on the public return on investment for such projects, finding the success of hitting economic goals is limited as are the social returns to the community. He joins Engage to parse out using tax revenue to build sports stadiums.
National Moonshine Day
Hootch, Rotgut, Firewater, and White Lightening are just some of the names for moonshine. It’s the product of distilling spirits with just some fresh water, plant material, sugar and heat. In honor of today, June 5th, being “National Moonshine Day,” Engage Producer Richard Copeland stops by Lake County to meet an authentic and legal moonshiner at Doug McCormick’s Yalaha Bootlegging Company.
