On a hot July morning, Yvette Batham welcomed this reporter into the air-conditioned interior of a small SUV.
Batham, 48, and hundreds of others were waiting in the car line of a food distribution event at the Ocala Rotary Sportsplex. A large truck from Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida had just arrived. Volunteers would soon be helping to distribute the food.
Batham said she's responsible for feeding nine people at her Ocala-area home. She said her husband started a new business in April and they no longer have his steady paycheck.
They've cut the food budget to about $200 every two weeks -- or about $11 per person per week.
"[W]ith the rising price of gas and paying mortgage and electric," she said, "the grocery budget ... that's where the cut had to be made, and if it wasn't for the food bank, we would just be in trouble. We'd be in big, big trouble."
As Batham waited for the line to start, she described her dream meal.
"Oh, I would make my family a nice seafood boil," she said. "I'd make them with corn and sausage and shrimp and crab legs, and and we'd all sit around my big old table, and we'd dip it in real butter, and … I could just see, I can just visualize all their happy, smiling faces."
Hitting low-income families hard
A federal survey shows that, on average, U.S. households spent 12% of the family budget on food in 2024. For very-low-income households, it was 33%.
And over the past year, as food costs continued to rise, a new federal law pushed hundreds of thousands of Floridians out of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, America's food security safety net.
Food banks and faith-based volunteers have responded to the increased need, but so far, the federal government has not.
This article -- part of the series "Central Florida Seen & Heard: Vote Your Budget" -- looks at those issues. It also focuses on the congressional options one voter affected by food insecurity will have on this year's General Election ballot.
'Cheap box meals'
Grocery prices are rising across America. They were up 2.7% in June compared to a year earlier, and some categories were much worse: beef and coffee were up around 12%, tomatoes 19%, and lettuce 32%.
In Central Florida, some families are having to choose cheaper, less healthy foods.
Twenty-one-year-old Conner Ortiz was at a food distribution at Wings of Faith Fellowship Church last month in Marion County's Silver Springs Shores.
Ortiz said he shops for his family of four, consisting of him, his brother and their parents.
"Our budget hasn't always been the best, but with food going up, it's been a lot more constrained, where really the best we can do is getting cheap box meals," he said.
They do like their meats, but those are pricey, Ortiz said. "I always wince whenever I get it because, like, I really could spend this on something that could fill them up more."
The Rev. Dale Broom, a pastor at Wings of Faith Fellowship Church, points to a chart showing a dramatic increase in the number of families served through its food ministry.
The Second Harvest Food Bank supplies distributions like the ones in Marion County and food pantries across seven counties. Its senior director of advocacy and government relations, Stephanie Palacios, said families are making hard choices all over Central Florida.
"Rent eats first," Palacios said. "If you are housed, you have to do what you can to protect that situation."
And you can't pay just 75% of your rent, she said. "You're going to have to make the squeeze somewhere else. And people are doing it at the grocery store. So they're going to food distributions and pantries to fill that gap. Additionally, we're seeing neighbors that are feeling the squeeze from falling off of SNAP benefits.
Changes to SNAP
That program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is the federal government’s longstanding effort to help millions of low-income families put food on the table.
SNAP and the federal assistance provided through groups like Second Harvest are in the hands of Congress, though state lawmakers will have a say in how recent changes to SNAP play out in Florida.
President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which congressional Republicans passed last summer, makes cuts to SNAP estimated at $187 billion over 10 years. It does so by expanding work requirements and shifting costs onto the states.
The work requirements, which take effect after three months on SNAP, have been extended to parents of children 14 and older, veterans, young adults leaving foster care, and older adults up to age 65.
Since the law took effect, more than 600,000 Floridians no longer receive SNAP. The numbers as of June show a 20.8% decline.
Palacios said more dominoes will fall soon.
"As time goes on, and we get over a year or maybe two years out from the One Big Beautiful Bill, then we can see what the impacts really are on the state, on the charitable food system, and on neighbors facing hunger," she said.
Beginning in October, the state's share of SNAP’s administrative costs will increase from 50% to 75%.
Historically, the federal government has paid for 100% of the actual SNAP benefits. Now part of the burden will shift to states, if their error rates are above 6%.
Beginning in October 2027, the bill requires:
- states with error rates of 6% but less than 8% to contribute 5% of SNAP benefits,
- states with error of 8% but less than 10% to contribute 10%, and
- states with error rates over 10% to contribute 15%.
In June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported a fiscal year 2025 payment error rate in Florida of 12.97%.
"In the future, the state of Florida is going to be responsible for 15% of those benefits, based on the error rates that recently came out," Palacios said. "Estimates are that that's close to a billion dollars worth of benefits."
As SNAP takes these hits, Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks, is confronting the growing need to at least try to fill the gap. It’s asking Congress to double funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Program -- known as TEFAP -- and increase the money for transportation and storage.
Those programs are paid for through the Farm Bill. The latest version passed the House earlier this year and is awaiting action in the Senate. It does not amp up funding for food assistance.
"And it's a decision that I think Central Floridians should be interested in asking their lawmakers," Palacios said. "What are the lawmakers' concerns about how support for neighbors facing hunger has dwindled over the past few years, and how investment hasn't increased, even though the need is?"
'Free food's not free'
As for what Batham, the Ocala mom, would like to see from lawmakers, the registered Republican said, first of all, she's thankful and she acknowledged that "free food's not free.”
"Somebody's working, somebody's paying the bill," she said, "and so I understand that SNAP has to tighten its belt, and I understand that there has to be some red tape."
Her family doesn't receive SNAP benefits. With her husband’s new business, Batham said they can’t track the household income in order to report it.
But she would like to see better foods at distributions.
"It would be so much better," Batham said, "if I could get some meat."
On the ballot
So how would the candidates running for Congress on her November ballot address food assistance?
Her home is in Florida Congressional District 3.
Her congresswoman, Gainesville Republican Kat Cammack, will face independent candidate Mike Klein and the winner among four men in the Democratic primary.
Cammack voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill.
“In July of last year, she supported the reconciliation package the President signed, which expanded work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents,” her campaign said in an email. “Her statement at the time said the bill ensures benefits go to those who truly need them.”
Cammack also helped to shape this year's Farm Bill to support producers affected by natural disasters. During floor debate she called it a lifeline for farmers and ranchers …”the men and women who wake up before the sun, who work through the hurricanes and the freezes and the disease outbreaks, who have been delivering for this country.”
But bolstering TEFAP wasn't one of her priorities. Her campaign points to a change in the Farm Bill that would allow states to spend some of those funds on fresh produce.
“This means food banks can take a share of that allocation as fresh produce instead of shelf-stable commodities,” the email states.
Klein, the independent candidate, says in an email that he favors ensuring adequate resources for food banks and protecting access to SNAP for people with genuine need.
“We should eliminate waste, fraud and abuse wherever it exists,” Klein said in an email. “But a nation cannot balance its budget on the backs of children, seniors, veterans and working families who are already struggling.”
He says food security shouldn’t be a partisan issue.
The Democratic candidates are Seth Harp, George Hubac, Troy Albers and Tom Wells.
Hubac and Harp have made opposing cuts to food assistance part of their campaigns.
In a candidate survey, Hubac says his No. 1 issue is to “reverse the cuts to Medicaid, food assistance, and health insurance.”
As for SNAP, Hubac said in an email that he’ll vote to restore it.
“The cuts in last year's budget law were written to arrive in waves,” he wrote. “The first wave already hit. Veterans used to be exempt from SNAP's work rules, and that exemption is gone. …. We asked these folks to serve, and now we're asking them to prove they deserve dinner.”
Harp said he teaches at a middle school in Gainesville where a high percent of families have SNAP. He said two students came to him in early November saying they were hungry and asking for old Halloween candy because their mother's EBT card no longer worked.
"[P]unishing adults, or the attempt to punish adults, you're actually hurting children. ... So the thing is, if part of your platform is denying children food, you are cruel.”
Albers, an Army and Navy veteran, said more money for TEFAP would also help farmers and that, ultimately, it comes down to what Congress chooses to fund.
“But it appears that we can find money when we want to do something to hurt somebody, but we can't seem to find money when we want to do something to help people, right?” Albers said. “And I'll give you an example: (with) what it would cost for 12 hours of the Iran War, we could have funded this for the entire year.”
Wells said he finds it hard to concentrate on this issue with so many concerns: killings by immigration agents, corporate campaign finance and “the tyranny of the Supreme Court.”
A blessed day
Finally, Batham’s SUV was at the end of the line. Cars filed by slowly on either side of a row of tents, where volunteers transferred the food.
Batham faced backward from the front seat with her daughter behind the wheel. At each stop, volunteers piled bread, milk, juice, pastries, chicken, vegetables, a watermelon and boxes of food into the back.
She called out a thank you to each volunteer
“You’re welcome, ladies,” said one of the women helping out. “Have a blessed day.”
