Food Insecurity

Hundreds of thousands of South Florida households will struggle to put food on the table this Thanksgiving. Feeding South Florida had 15,000 turkeys on hand this year to distribute — which still wasn’t enough to meet demand.

Food banks and local nonprofits struggle to meet growing demand as federal nutrition aid is halved for thousands of families and seniors.

The measure — the Keep SNAP Funded Act of 2025 (H.R. 5822) — would direct the U.S. Department of Agriculture to maintain full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, operations throughout any lapse in government funding.

SNAP has about $6 billion in the contingency fund — short of the roughly $9 billion needed to cover a full month of the program, putting November benefits in jeopardy.

SNAP recipients should receive their benefits in October. The White House also pledged to keep WIC operational using tariff revenues.

Boca Helping Hands, which serves 35,000 people a year with food, job training and financial assistance, was already feeling the pressure from earlier federal budget cuts and a significant drop in food donations.

In Florida, it’s estimated that around one million children and more than 1,000 schools could lose access to free meals if changes to the Community Eligibility Provision are adopted.

A bill in the Florida Legislature would set up a yearlong “Hunger-Free Campus” pilot program at three state colleges or universities.

The 2025 report by the Florida Policy Institute ranks counties on five factors, with the newest being food security.

Feeding South Florida CEO Paco Vélez says food-insecure families face a holiday season where they have to make a choice between paying for housing and medications over food and gifts for their children.

Florida Keys food pantries are struggling to stay stocked up at a time when they’re seeing demand for food nearly double. “The bottom line is Monroe is really starving right now,” said the CEO of the largest food pantry operator in the Keys.

Millions of children are going without extra food on the table this summer, after 13 states said no to joining a federal program that helps families in need buy groceries.