The Florida Senate is committing $50 million of its proposed budget to address food insecurity and help the state’s farmers. The money would expand food banks while connecting fresh food grown or produced in-state to those in need. The proposal comes as programs on the federal level are facing cuts.
The Senate wants $50 million to go to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for grant programs. $12 million of that would help expand food distribution for Floridians who live too far away from the food banks and pantries they need. And $38 million would go to administer a competitive grant program aimed at helping Florida farmers.
“We have certain commodities that we have certain times of the years that we have an abundance of in Florida," says Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson. "And sometimes they’re lost because there’s nowhere to go with them. And sometimes those farmers take a 100 percent hit on them.”
Simpson points to milk as an example. He says if a farmer is supplying K-12 schools, the market is just not there part of the year. Sometimes farmers can move their product at a big discount, and sometimes they have to dump it. But the Senate’s grant programs could get that milk to food banks and food pantries.
“What we hope it’s going to do is marry up the times our farmers are in abundance, where we’re buying this product at cost, at best, to the farmer, but then we’re going to put it and distribute it through the Feeding Florida system to people that are food insecure," he says. "And so what we’re doing is we’re marrying the two groups. A big help to the farming community with, obviously, a big help to the food insecure folks...It’s not a one and one equals two. It’s going to be a one and one’s going to equal about four.”
Feeding Florida CEO Robin Safley says the proposed grants could also help expand a partnership between the farmers and the food banks to bring more beef, dairy and eggs to food insecure Floridians. But in their system, she says, more refrigerators or freezers would be necessary.
“...the way we work, which is putting food through a partner agency, such as a church, a Boys and Girls Club, another not-for-profit that is in partnership with our food banks, that they may need more refrigeration and capacity-building," says Safley "So, the other pocket of money that is in the Senate, the $12 million, is for that type of expansion -- with a focus on rural Florida.”
Meanwhile, in addition to looking at money coming in from the state government to help address food insecurity, Simpson has his eye on funds from the federal government. After the Trump administration cut funding for federal food programs earlier this year, Simpson says he’s asking for a $2.5 billion block grant that he thinks could help fill the gap. Simpson says he thinks if the money is funneled to the states, they could run the same food programs more efficiently.
“So, I believe that if the federal government -- just like they did with the Department of Education -- if they would just shut it down, give us a block grant of the money, about 70 or 80 percent of what they were spending on the entire of our portion of that in a block grant, we will do more good with 80 percent of the money than they did with all of the money,” Simpson says.
It’s unclear where the Florida House of Representatives stands on budget items dealing with food insecurity. They didn’t respond to requests for comment.
