Florida Policy Institute has released its 2025 Child Well-Being Report, which shows the lack of child food security is a major concern.
The report considers how each of Florida’s 67 counties invests and supports its children. Analysts look at 16 indicators, which are sorted into four categories: economic well-being, family and community, education and health.
This year’s summary added child food security as a fifth category.
The report is produced by the institute using data from Kids Count, a national organization that surveys child well-being in each state.
Higher ranked counties are considered “well-resourced places” that allow families to invest in opportunities for their children, according to the institute. Lower rankings mean people in that county have “borne the brunt” of disinvestment in public services.
St. Johns County in North Florida was the overall top ranked county, ranking first in three of the five categories: family and community, economic well-being and child food security.
In St. Johns, 9.1% of children were food insecure. In Gadsden County, which ranked last for child food security, 35.5% were food insecure.
“Food insecurity is defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as the ‘limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways,’” according to the report.
Florida is one of only 11 states that opted out of $259 million in funding from the federal government. The money would have helped feed over two million children in low-income families during the summer when they cannot get meals at school. The SUN Bucks program would have provided each eligible child with $120 in grocery money.
FPI’s CEO Sadaf Knight said in a press release that the report shows how children are doing.
“Families in our state deserve to know how lawmakers’ investments, or lack thereof, have impacted Florida kids,” Knight said.
FPI is also highlighting how federal proposals to cut health, nutrition, education and environmental programs could hurt Floridians.
The institute said slashing programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), could “entrench families in economic hardship and food insecurity.”
Norín Dollard is FPI's senior analyst and Kids Count director.
She said these potential cuts could increase child food insecurity.
"In every case, Florida's children would be affected,” Dollard said. “Florida's residents are being affected by the things that are being proposed."
She said food insecurity was featured in the 2025 report because it directly impacts the other categories the index considers.
"Child hunger affects kids across all developmental areas,” she said. “You can't do well in school if you're going to school hungry."
Dollard said the index calls attention to counties that need more support and resources for their children.
She said the goal is not to pit counties against each other.
“What’s important is that we invest in our children,” she said. “It’s playing the long game.”
