TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Leon County Libraries is offering free lunches to kids in partnership with Second Harvest. While no federal cuts have taken effect yet, food insecurity is rising, now affecting 1 in 4 children in the Big Bend.
- Summer BreakSpot is back at Leon County Libraries, providing free lunches to kids in partnership with Second Harvest, serving 2,500 children this summer.
- The program is available at the Leon County Main Library, Dr. B.L. Perry, Jr. Branch Library, Woodville Branch Library and Fort Braden Branch Library.
- Watch the video to see what kinds of impacts summer food programs could face amid potential federal cuts.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Summer BreakSpot, a national free lunch program, is back at Leon County Libraries in partnership with Second Harvest.
But what makes this summer different — uncertainty over cuts to federal food programs.
"We're just not sure what that looks like right now, so we're just keeping that on the radar, making sure,” McGowan said.
A reconciliation bill that recently passed the U.S. House could reduce spending on SNAP by more than $290 billion.
The USDA also pulled funding from programs that helped schools buy food from local farms.
Second Harvest Chief Development Officer James McGowan tells me there’s no impacts yet, but says food insecurity is growing.
"Last year, it was 1 in 5 children here in the Big Bend. Now, it's 1 in 4,” he said. “We know there's an uptick of that happening for many different reasons. A lot of the food inflation that we've seen and things like that have gone up.”
So far, the program has served 2,500 kids in just a few weeks.
That's about 18,000 meals.
"This opportunity is really helping these kiddos and their families, and we can see that by the consistency at which they're coming,” Cole said.
Library Services Coordinator Savannah Cole says the library offers one lunch a day for kids 18 and under.
At rural branches, kids get meals for the entire week.
“It helps to support our county's commitment to bridging the food insecurity in our county and also supports our library's strategic plan for how we reimagine helping our patrons,” she said.
Second Harvest tells ABC 27’s Brieanna Smith that if these cuts happen, then they may have to turn to the community for help, but their goal is to serve about 69,000 meals by the end of summer.
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