This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

[music] Budget cuts in both state and federal programs are filtering down to the local level, including the Tampa Bay area.

Thousands of Floridians are struggling with food insecurity, and childhood hunger peaks during the summer months when school is out.

Meet some of the groups and individuals taking steps to feed people across the region, from children to the elderly, and see how young people in St. Pete.

are digging in to learn how to grow their own healthy food.

That's all coming up next on Florida This Week.

[upbeat music] Welcome back, everybody I'm Lissette Campos.

There is no shortage of budget cuts and legislative wrangling making headlines in Florida this summer.

So recent changes to food programs at the state and federal level have gone relatively unnoticed.

And yet, food insecurity affects one in every four children in our viewing area.

It hides in plain sight, invisible during much of the school year, when kids can access free breakfast and lunch in the school cafeteria.

But all of that changes in the summer.

Joining our panel this week for a very important conversation on this, we have Thomas Mance, the president and CEO of Feeding Tampa Bay.

Lorena Hardwick, Chief External Affairs Officer for Feeding Tampa Bay.

We also have Aria Garling of the USF Center for the Advancement of Food Security and Healthy Communities, where she's a graduate student and also a researcher.

We have Carla Bristol, Collaboration Manager at the St. Pete Youth Farm.

And finally, we have Divya Kumar, a reporter for the Tampa Bay Times.

She specializes in higher education and nonprofits.

Thank you, everyone for joining me.

Thomas, I'd like to start with you.

A lot of folks are asking questions about the Snap program.

Explain to our viewers what's going on with that, and what are the concerns that you all are having about that at Feeding Tampa Bay?

I think if you want to set context, you have to understand that a significant portion of our populace every single day is having a difficult time putting food on the table.

Even more difficult is putting healthy food on the table.

And so when you look at 1 in 4 kids or in the greater Tampa Bay area, a million folks are struggling to make sure they have the resources to take care of their families.

In those situations, there have to be programs, resources, and benefits that provide some sort of support.

We would provide food, but what Snap does is Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is it gives families that qualify the ability to be inside of a grocery store, shop for the good products that they need for their home.

And it's and it provides long term access to, uh, items that we otherwise may not be able to provide.

Uh, and so it's an important and necessary transitional tool.

It's not forever.

It helps folks manage their way through difficult times.

Uh, until there's greater stability economically inside of a household.

So the changes to snap may result in more people needing the food programs that you all provide.

Correct?

It's, you know, it's always tricky to throw out numbers because of size and scope.

But what we understand the federal government is, is considering doing is drastically reducing, if not eliminating, a significant portions of Snap.

Uh, if you think about it this way, nationwide, which is a number that we would want to pay attention to, uh, food banks around the United States provide about 6 billion meals every year, which is significant.

Snap provides 9 billion meals for every one meal a food bank can provide.

Snap provides nine.

So the size and scope of the potential cuts in our community would be devastating to a significant part of our portion of our population.

And most critically, those that use Snap are typically the least capable economically, meaning they will have no other choices.

The majority of children is there a certain age group that's more at risk than others that you're seeing with the food programs at Feeding Tampa Bay provides?

I think I think the entire family is at risk.

It's not ever just a child that is hungry, but the potential damage to a child.

So the age ranges are all the way up through school, but the potential damage to a child from a developmental standpoint, an educational standpoint and emotional standpoint would be significant because a lot of kids are taken care of from using resources from Snap.

Lorena, it's been such a contentious legislative session at the state level as well as congressional level.

What are some of the areas that most concern you?

Pieces of legislation that were that the changes are coming?

Yes, to just piggyback on some of what Thomas said in regards to Snap, there are 3 million individuals here in the state of Florida that are on Snap benefit, and just in our Tampa Bay region of ten counties that we serve, there's about 252,000 households that benefit from these services.

And to us, that is a concern, as Thomas mentioned.

And you guys were just talking about that there is going to be an increased need.

And we are very concerned for the families of young children.

There are a lot of new restrictions that they are putting into play, and the unknown is how the state will be able to manage that.

So there are still a lot of unknowns that we're not quite sure how it's going to impact.

But when you cut, as they're proposing in DC, a 30% off of Snap, you have to imagine that for us here in Florida, those almost 3 million people that are on the benefit will either see a reduce a reduction in benefit and or see a cut.

And then of course, there's the, you know, how is the state going to manage that?

Among the estimates that I've seen is one that says $1.6 billion a year that the state of Florida will have to come up with because the changes involving Snap, basically, um, right now, the way it works is the states cover the administrative cost with the federal government 50 over 50.

Now, the state will have to come up with 75% of the cuts.

And currently the the groceries are covered completely by the federal program.

The funding that will also change the state will also have to put money into that.

And so those specific numbers, um, some folks are saying they may not sound like a lot, but it means more than $1.6 billion per year that the state will have to come up with.

Yeah, and that is, uh, you know, based on the conversations that the state has been having, um, as we saw trying to get a budget passed, you know, these are very tough choices that the state could potentially have to make.

There are some conversations in DC currently where that particular piece of the of the statute is, is being questioned.

So we'll see what happens eventually with that.

But it is a huge concern budgetarily what the state can do if that cost is shared.

We think it's some 300 million a year that the state of Florida would have to pick up, and that's a significant impact to a state budget.

Yes it is.

Divya, what are some of the stories when you're working on the stories on education and on the children?

Um, some of the stories that you are looking at, what is most concerning.

You talked about the school lunches and the changes, how that will impact the kids.

Yeah.

So right now, with supply costs that have kind of been continually increasing, um, Pinellas and Pasco counties have increased their breakfast and lunch prices ranging between, I think, $0.15 per meal to about a dollar per meal.

And that doesn't impact students who are on free or reduced lunches.

But there is kind of growing concern about what might happen to those students with some of the proposed legislation.

Um, right now, I think through the community eligibility provision, any school that has about 25% of students who would individually qualify for free or reduced lunch, everybody in the school has access to that.

And I think this proposed legislation would raise that to about 60%.

Um, and there is concern about what that means in terms of participation, um, and kind of the stigma that comes with with that and how these programs have kind of made it easier for people, um, to sort of access free and reduced lunch and also without.

Feeling that attention on you.

Right, right, right.

And that would also require individual applications from each family and a lot of administrative burden, um, on the schools.

Um, and the other thing that it would require, the change would require documentation of household income level, where previously it was just kind of a sample that was audited.

So there would be sort of a lot more.

And I think.

How would this affect migrant children in particular?

I think there's a lot of growing concerns about that for a couple different reasons.

One, that that is a big population that is impacted by this.

But I think there's also some worries that with some of the other federal changes around immigration.

Anecdotally, I've heard that there's kind of higher absentee rates and that school has sort of been a place of more than just school, where there's breakfast and lunch and social services.

And that's kind of a part that's might be missing, too.

Right.

Yeah.

There's a lot of things that are factoring in at the same time.

Um, Thomas, I'd like to, you know, folks who are listening to the to this may have an idea of what food insecurity is, but that may not necessarily be in alignment with what you, the experts say.

How do you define food insecurity?

Yeah.

You know, there's a USDA definition.

So it rises to that level of concern that the USDA has defined it.

But basically what it comes down to is you don't have the ability to access nutritionally adequate foods.

You don't possess the financial resources to do that.

And it's important that we understand that.

Uh, it's nutritionally adequate.

You know, the goal of food consumption is health and well-being.

Uh, now, tasty too.

But health and well-being is what we're looking for.

And folks that are food insecure traditionally don't have as much access.

So it's important to pay attention to that aspect of it as well, in terms of how you acquire food and what you're doing to make sure that your family is healthy psychologically.

We've talked about in the past of of how food insecurity does impact a family.

It is, you know, it's something that we pay a lot of attention to this idea of dignity, because what happens when you're food insecure or have any other challenges in your life, you lose a sense of self, right?

You're struggling to take care of your family, which is already something that is somewhat debilitating emotionally and spiritually.

Uh, you end up in a place where you can't control the food that you want, which is important to you.

Familiarly.

Right?

We go to the store and we shop for things we care about and want.

You lose a sense of your culture, right?

Because the food you acquire is a lot of it defines who you are as a culture and as a family.

And so it becomes really, really difficult to maintain your sense of identity in many ways when these things are lost.

And so part of what I think all of us want to pay attention to is the opportunity to acquire them in a socially acceptable manner, which is a part of the USDA definition, that you can get your food in a way that the rest of us would want to.

Thank you for that explanation.

I think it's important for all of us to come around a shared understanding of what this is.

Another thing that we're watching are the changes to Medicaid, the Medicaid cuts, um, specifically, they're talking about, um, not allowing the states to enact taxes that they put on healthcare providers.

And so the Medicaid eligibility in the state of Florida won't change.

However, there is growing fears that many health care providers will pull back on some of the programs in the underserved communities in order to make up the difference.

Um, is that something, Carla, that that you're that you look at and you're concerned about?

I don't have a lot of familiarity with this area, so I have to be very direct about Lorena.

Is this something that you're concerned about?

It is.

It's a big concern.

Over 4 million people have Medicaid services here in the state of Florida.

A large majority of them are families with young children and the senior population, especially those that are in long term care.

Florida did not go through Medicaid expansion, so a lot of what's coming down isn't going to impact as harshly as it will in other states.

But what will impact here in the state of Florida is the fact that there are work requirements in Medicaid now, work requirements for parents of children, work requirements, requirements for seniors up to age 65.

It used to be 55.

So again, there's the ambiguity of how is the state going to manage this with.

We know as legislation stands that starting in 2027, anyone that cannot fulfill those work requirements will be taken off the Medicaid rolls.

But in the interim, if this becomes law as it's listed, how will that impact the state?

What are states going to do to, uh, to take care of that particular issue?

And it does connect with the issue of food, because now you're you're having to make a choice between paying to go to the doctor or paying for a medication that you may need or buying food.

Correct?

One of the questions we ask the community to consider when we're thinking about those we serve.

If you had to choose medication for your child or food, which would you choose?

Medication for my child.

It's a really difficult choice, right?

It's a hard thing, I think, to frame it for the viewer in a way that I think speaks to the population that you serve, is when snap is lost, you lose real dollars.

It is a loss of income to your household.

Medicaid is an increased expense to your household.

And as we talked about at the start of the show, between rent, gas and food prices, families are already struggling to a significant degree to try and make their way through.

Loss of these resources is only going to increase household pressure and larger gaps.

We have been relieved to see how these two wonderful organizations have been helping our community.

Since last year, Feeding Tampa Bay has been able to deliver twice as much fresh produce and perishable foods than before, thanks to the 31,000 square foot cold storage space at its new causeway center in east Hillsborough County.

Another game changer is the St. Pete Youth Farm that we've been talking to.

Carla with this Youth Farm is is allowing the next generation to be empowered to take action for themselves.

Take a look.

St. Pete Youth Farm was launched in summer of 2019 as a youth development program for for teens.

We quickly realized that that's what we're here to do is to develop the future for our city and areas beyond us.

The youth began.

To come and pour into the community, and the St. Pete Youth Farm opened up their doors and invited the community to come and get involved and say, hey, we have food here for you.

They're learning how to cook, they're learning how to grow food.

They're learning everything from hydroponics, aquaponics.

They find value in being able to provide for the community.

It feels enriching for them.

Um, along with the programing that we offer.

job readiness and job keeping skills is also something that we prioritize.

Here at St. Pete, you farm for young leaders.

But character development is what we believe must come before leadership.

So look at that and smell.

Are you smelling that over here?

We're making the additional seasoning for that.

Every Monday.

There's pretty much something different.

There's poetry, there's arts, there's crafts, there's painting.

I don't think.

We don't really pay much attention to the youth anymore, you know?

And so I think these new generations are feeling somewhat neglected and isolated.

And so having a youth farm to me is one of those sort of recreational environments that we need to bring back.

And also it allows the community to come together and support others.

Um, how what is the the mood, um, from the families as we take a look at all these different changes that are coming down.

I have to say that ingrained in the work we do is preparing for times such as this.

I don't think anybody can imagine the magnitude that we're going to experience.

But this is why we give out seeds, right over 10,000 packets of seeds so that we can empower individual homes or somebody on the block to grow something.

Um, you know, we have over 160 individuals in St. Pete that's composting with us.

So we're actually creating the soil that grows the food or the aquaponics system that we've doubled to help with all the natural fertilizers.

So you can't get more natural food than we're growing at the farm currently, but we've given out in the last two months thanks to the Office of Sustainability with the City of St. Petersburg, over 400 fruit trees.

So we're putting back the fruit trees in the homes around the corners where it's more accessible.

So I'm I'm looking forward to the years ahead where in the past 20 some odd years, you know, more and more trees have been taken out.

But where we're putting back responsibly fruit trees, the way somebody in our community says it, said it to me when I first started doing the work, is everything you eat today?

Somebody thought about you even before you were born, some of the fruits.

Right.

So we have a level of ownership to go ahead and recreate that for the generations ahead.

So giving out those fruit trees to people all throughout St. Petersburg, uh, providing the mini garden workshops, over 2800 plants going that all cultivated at the farm.

I mean, this is part of the work we do to help address this, but also knowing exactly where your food is coming from and the practices used to grow, it is so vitally important and same thing, Like Thomas said from day one, what was important to us is dignity in accessing food.

So when you show up at the gate, I don't want to have to ask you, where do you live, what your zip code is.

It's just the fact that you're here means that you are interested in getting something nutritious.

So we harvest fresh and provide fresh.

And I think this is just one of the many solutions.

Thankfully in the bay area that helps to support providing this type of access to individuals.

Aria, tell us about the research that's being done at USF.

Absolutely.

And I'd like to start with that.

Food insecurity isn't just about the lack of food.

And as Thomas had mentioned, it's really about the lack of access to the right food, that culturally appropriate food that's nutritious.

And this is all deeply connected to chronic illness and mental health and overall quality of life.

And the University of South Florida takes a comprehensive, research based approach through the Center for the Advancement of Food Security and Healthy Communities.

Um, it was established in 2020, and it's currently led by Dr. Hillel Green, who's a medical anthropologist.

And it brings together faculty and students and community partners such as Feeding Tampa Bay and the Youth Farm, who are really committed to eliminating that food insecurity and building the healthier communities.

Um, and this is done through the research by evaluating different programs, ones that are already in existence and evaluating their efficacy and developing those innovative, innovative interventions by also training the future leaders, such as Carla is doing within the youth farm.

Um, everything is driven by real world partnerships and grounded in data.

Tell us about when you talk about real world partnerships.

Give us the example of a partnership that the USF center has done with Feeding Tampa Bay on.

Is it prescriptions the Avara program?

Explain that to our viewers.

Absolutely.

So yes.

One very powerful example is the center's collaboration with Feeding Tampa Bay and Everett Health.

And this was a food program.

And the initiative prescribes these fresh, nutritious food to patients that are already receiving services at the centers.

And they're managing chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension alongside their regular medical treatments.

Um, 177 participants were a part of this program, receiving biweekly produce deliveries, and it was found that nearly 80% of the individuals that were participating in this reported better access to the healthy food.

It also, um, it improved their chronic conditions, So we saw improved A1C.

We saw better medication adherence.

so these are the real implications of having the access in a dignified way to nutrient dense food.

Um, I also want to mention that just as important as those biomarkers was that the patients felt more trust with their health care workers.

They felt reduced stress and it boosted their health engagement.

So they found so much more than just that fresh produce.

And it really speaks to the fact that so that people really need to take the time to find out and learn what our organizations are doing before they form an opinion.

Because if we would have told someone that feeding Tampa Bay is part of this, they might not understand that you do so many other things as well.

You know, we were proud to start the institute with USF, uh, quite a while ago.

And, you know, I would just cite one of the first studies we ever did was we asked USF to come in and study our backpack program, which is a familiar way to feed kids on weekends.

Teachers said kids aren't eating on weekends.

We send them home with a backpack.

We brought USF in and asked them to do a study.

They came back with 2 or 300 data points, but two stuck out to us immediately.

One, that 70% of the food was being eaten by the family Friday night.

Well, we thought we were giving the kid was the ability to eat over the weekend.

The reality was the family was hungry, so we thought, we're smart people.

We'll start putting other things in the bags.

And so we put soups and stews and all of that.

And now the child's going home with a 30 pound backpack of food.

As one of our colleagues said, little sherpas, but this was Dr. Himmel Green.

He said to us at one point, you have a bigger problem than that.

And we said, well, what's that?

He said, you're asking a child to become responsible to feed their family.

You can't do that to a child.

That's the last backpack we ever did.

And we started building school pantries, where now we're in 75 schools throughout our community.

But it's a great way that research and partnership ultimately change the entire course of how we feed children in our community.

How can the community, um, feel more empowered to do something?

Should they be contacting their legislator?

Should what are the conversations that, um, civic minded voters need to be having doing in order to try and change things for the better?

Carla.

Well, um, I think they're community leaders in all communities, and I don't think they're necessarily all elected officials.

Um, so I think oftentimes we put too much stake in our elected officials, and then we hold them accountable for things they don't even know, or their ability to just reach out to the everyday people just isn't as great as it probably once was.

So I think, um, what I've observed is a lot of neighborhood associations are lacking attendance, right?

So if the neighborhood association probably has greater power than the individual home renter homeowner.

So start with your neighborhood association.

Look for the, uh, community leader in your community or become it.

I've had people criticize different community leaders and I said, well, what are you doing?

How can we help?

Like it's the space is wide open for all of us.

Um, and then I think if we come up with a collective agenda, I think we don't have a collective agenda.

So there's so many issues that we're so scattered that we are not focused.

If we become focused as a community, especially for us in Pinellas County, that's living on a in a peninsula, on a peninsula, right.

So this is why this is so serious to me.

I live five blocks from the farm.

It's serious because we are vulnerable in general, right?

Then layer everything else on top of that creates a greater level of vulnerability.

So I want to see us, um, work together more, create a community agenda, find those leaders which may happen to be some youth.

They're not all over 60 or over 50, etc.

so let's start listening to the young people.

I tell them all the time, you're the smartest brains in the room.

Well, thank you so much to all of you for sharing your stories and sharing your work.

It's so fascinating to learn what everybody is doing, all the different community organizations.

That's it for us.

Thanks to our panel members this week Thomas Mantz, Lorena Hardwick, Aria Garling, Divya Kumar and Carla Bristol.

Remember to send your comments about this program to ftw@wedu.org.

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Have a happy 4th of July!