Lines at Collier County food pantries stretch longer in summer. Why? No free meals in school

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One in five kids in Florida not sure of source for next meal

• Florida families face summer food insecurity challenges as schools close, impacting access to free and reduced-price meals.
• Florida opted out of the USDA’s SUN Bucks program, which provides grocery assistance to low-income families during summer.
• Food banks and pantries experience increased demand during summer, compounded by USDA funding cuts and rising food prices.
• Summer camps and community programs play a vital role in providing meals and support to children in need.

It’s hot. Humidity is getting awful. And kids get out of school soon for summer.

Will they get enough nutritious food to go up against the brutal heat?

That’s a challenge every summer, hunger relief advocates say.

Schools letting out at the end of May means the loss of free breakfast and lunch for all students in 30 schools. That’s roughly half the schools in the Collier County School District. In other schools, kids who qualify for the national free or reduced lunch program face a similar situation.

It’s a quandary for low-income families who rely on the meals to make ends meet, especially as food prices soar. The school district says 54% of Collier students are from low-income households, shattering a perception the community is overwhelmingly wealthy.

The Summer Food Service Program, known as Summer BreakSpot, is a U.S. Department of Agriculture program that provides no-cost meals to students during the long break. Hunger relief advocates say it has shortcomings.

In addition, Florida is not taking part in another USDA program launched in 2023, called SUN Bucks, which is a supplement to the summer meal program. SUN Bucks provides $40 a month per child, or a total of $120, for grocery assistance to low-income families in summer.

Florida is one of 11 states passing on SUN Bucks, even though the next meal for one in five kids in the state is not a sure thing, according to Sky Beard, director of the Florida affiliate of No Kid Hungry.

Against a backdrop of the USDA as the key government source to help feed at-risk kids year-round, the agency announced cuts in March of more than $1 billion nationally to food banks and growers.

The cuts will trickle down to impact community food pantries.

“You can’t distribute out of an empty warehouse,” Stephen Popper, president and chief executive officer of Meals of Hope, a Collier-based nonprofit, said. Meals of Hope provides prepackaged meals in the community and runs 15 food pantries in Collier and south Lee County.

Still unknown are potential cuts to SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps, to eligible low-income families. Roughly 2.9 million Floridians could be impacted if Congress cuts the program, according to the non-partisan Florida Policy Institute.

“The reductions in SNAP being considered by Congress threaten the food security and well-being of the most fragile families in Florida, as well as the state’s economy,” Cindy Huddleston, senior policy analyst with the institute, said.

“People don’t realize that more than one-third of all SNAP households in the state have children while nearly 40 percent have a senior member,” Huddleston said.

“Florida would be hit hard no matter how much Congress decides to cut SNAP. And it’s unlikely that the state could afford to take up the slack,” she said. “Florida can’t absorb significant costs: state economists already forecast a  $2.8 billion deficit by 2026-27.”

What the numbers show

Collier has 48,000 students in 63 schools, along with nine charter schools that are their own entity and can elect to participate in Community Eligibility Provision, CEP, part of the National School Lunch Program, according to the school district.

The USDA launched CEP in 2010 to allow school districts in high poverty areas to offer breakfast and lunch at no cost to all students in qualifying schools.

The purpose is to increase access to meals, eliminate the stigma of kids who take part in the free or reduced lunch program, and it eliminates administrative work for schools.

As late February, the Collier district served more than 1.5 million meals through CEP with three months left in the school year.

During summer, the school district takes part in Breakspot with free meals to students at a handful of approved school or community center locations.

“(The Collier school district) will offer several locations to receive meals throughout the summer,” the district said. “Any school providing summer education will have free meals available. In addition, there will be two locations to receive grab-and-go meals. One site will be in (Golden Gate) Estates and the other will be in Immokalee.”

Are both summer meal programs needed?

A drawback with Breakspot is limited spots where the meals are offered and requirement the kids eat the meal on site, Beard, of No Kid Hungry, said.

For many parents, that is logistically challenging because of jobs or lack of transportation; the school location may not be the one the children attend during the school year.

The financial assistance via SUN Bucks is to complement the summer meal program, she said.

“SUN Bucks is another piece of the puzzle to tackle summer hunger,” she said.

Data from the American Heart Association shows 17,054 children in Collier would be eligible for SUN Bucks based on family enrollment in SNAP. That would equate to $2 million in food assistance for Collier families.

Dozens of social service agencies, local United Way chapters, churches, food banks and others around the state signed a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Secretary of the Department of Children and Families urging participation in SUN Bucks this summer.

Penned by the Washington, D.C.-based Bread for the World, the letter described SUN Bucks as working “in tandem” with other food assistance programs.

 “Summer BreakSpot only reaches about 17% of eligible children due, in part, to the fact that not all families have transportation to participating locations, such as parks and libraries,” the letter said.

The Florida Policy Institute said the $120 over the summer would go a long way for parents struggling to make sure their kids have enough to eat.

“With food prices rising, Florida’s decision not to provide SUN Bucks to kids in families with low income is disturbing,” Huddleston, the senior policy analyst, said.

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press office did not respond to a request for comment for the state’s decision to not participate.

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Children and Families told a media outlet in 2024 that the state’s approach to serving children will continue to be successful without any additional federal programs that “inherently always come with some federal strings attached.”

The federal government covers 100% of the benefits provided to families; SUN Bucks does require states to pick up 50% of administrative costs.

Food pantries are hard at work

Meals of Hope’s food pantries always expect an uptick of families needing help in summer.

“With kids out of school, demand at pantries will go up conservatively 15%,” Popper, the CEO, said.

Summer is supposed to be vacation time but that’s a sentiment gone by the wayside.

“Now instead of being vacation it is a time of high anxiety for children. When school gets out, the question for families is where  they are going to get food,” he said.

Meals helps 4,000 families a week at its food pantries. They are asked to visit a pantry only once a week.

“We ask that they don’t double dip and they don’t,” Popper said. “There is such little abuse of that.”

Since they wait in line an hour, a family historically receives $100 worth of food; Popper couldn’t estimate how much the value has gone up if the food was purchased at a grocery store at today’s prices.

Similarly, the Salvation Army of Collier is well versed in how families need more assistance once school lets out for summer.

The food pantry makes a point of providing child friendly, often microwavable, items so kids can fix breakfast or lunch at home, according to Sharon Goodlette, social services program coordinator for the Salvation Army.

“Same for breakfast cereal that is shelf stable,” she said. “When you are not fed breakfast or lunch at school, that creates a need.”

The Salvation Army’s food pantry in East Naples was closed for two years because of fire damage to its East Naples building; the Harry Chapin Food Bank stepped up with its mobile food pantry on Fridays, she said.

Since the Salvation Army reopened its food pantry in late December, it has had to purchase food in addition to what it receives from Harry Chapin and Midwest Food Bank, the region’s food banks, because of a surge in need among clients.

The role of summer camps

Camps and summer school often replace the meals that kids get at school during the year.

Boys & Girls Club of Collier County has 900 students in camps in Immokalee and Naples, including 180 teenagers from sixth to 12^th grade.

“A critical component of our program is ensuring that children have access to nutritious meals each day,” said Shari Rodriguez, vice president of program operations. “Without the club’s support, many of our members might not have consistent access to these meals throughout the summer.”

Parents appreciate the help, especially as grocery store prices are gong up.

“Many parents have shared that the rising cost of food is putting an increasing strain on their budgets, making. the meals provided through our summer program more valuable than ever,” she said.

In the farmworker community of Immokalee, where many families live at or below poverty levels, the Guadalupe Center focuses on breaking the cycle of poverty through educational programs and social services, and that includes summer camp offering food.

Roughly 300 kids from kindergarten through second grade are served which is 20% of the children in the community; many migrant families go north in the summer for harvest jobs.

The kids are fed through funding from the school district and the USDA but Guadalupe also distributes food it gets from Harry Chapin, Midwest Food and other agencies. Need is high.

“Summer programming creates a safe and fun place for learning before students start the next grade,” Dawn Montecalvo, president and chief executive officer, said. “Additionally, summer programming provides a safe place to be, adequate supervision, transportation and food security.”

Food banks are the critical link for local pantries

The region’s food banks, namely Harry Chapin and Midwest Food Bank are the critical supplier to the region’s food pantries and other nonprofits.

Harry Chapin, part of Feeding America, supports 175 agency partners which collectively serve 250,000 people monthly.

It also provides shelf stable products to 45 school pantries in the region, where 12 of the schools are in Collier. Similarly, food kits are distributed to families at early learning centers.

“The hunger crisis is growing in Southwest Florida, where one in eight people, and one in six children are food insecure,” said Richard LeBer, president and chief executive officer of Harry Chapin, said.

“Many of our neighbors face severe financial challenges such as the cost of groceries, housing, transportation, health care and other essentials (that) rise faster than their paychecks, making it difficult to access healthy nutritious food,” LeBer said.

Midwest Food serves more than 240 partner agencies in the region.

“Summer is a major stress point for families and, consequently, for food pantries,” John McKinnon, executive director of the Florida division of Midwest, said. “We regularly hear from our agency partners about the increased number of families seeking help during the summer months.”

There’s no question summertime is tough for families, LeBer, of Harry Chapin, said.

“During the summer, many parents who work in agriculture, tourism, and hospitality bring home smaller paychecks, a financial shortfall exacerbated by the fact that they must provide two additional meals for children each day when school is not in session,” he said.

About 25% of Harry Chapin’s funding comes from federal, state and local government agencies; the remainder comes from private donors, corporations, foundations and the like.

Harry Chapin officials are not expected to know what its share will be of the $1 billion cut from the USDA until later in May.

“The old saying, ‘It takes a village,’ certainly applies when it comes to feeding neighbors who are experiencing hunger,” LeBer said. “We all must pitch in as individuals and organizations to ensure that no one in our community goes hungry.”

In terms of the USDA’s $1 billion cut to programs, Midwest is not anticipating a significant direct impact because its operations are largely sustained through private support, McKinnon said.

“That said, we are aware these changes may affect other hunger relief efforts and may increase pressure on our partner agencies and by extension, on us,” he said. “While federal cuts don’t impact us directly, we remain focused on increasing support from our donor base to meet rising needs.”

Similar to others, McKinnon said rising food costs and transportation has presented challenges, yet its model is built around rescuing food from manufacturers, distributors and retailers to reduce overhead.

“Midwest Food Bank is committed to being a steady, reliable resource to our partners and to families facing food insecurity, especially during the summer months when children are most vulnerable,” he said.