In December, Mallory McManus, a spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Families in Florida — which administers the federal school lunch program in the state — told reporters that the state planned on refusing over $250 million dollars in new federal food assistance money.
That money, which was available through the US Department of Agriculture’s new SUN Bucks program, would have given $120 of additional summer grocery money to the parents of the 2.1 million school-aged children who receive free or reduced-price lunches throughout the school year in Florida. As food insecurity experts have established, child hunger spikes during the summer because millions lose access to the school breakfast, lunches and afterschool meals they receive during the regular school year.
