They sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson and Shevaun Harris, secretary for the Florida Department of Children and Families, late Tuesday urging them to notify the federal government that they intend to apply to the program.

State officials passed up millions of dollars in new federal food assistance money this summer. They have consistently said they have more than enough programs to feed Florida’s hungry children and that the federal program had unwelcome “strings” attached.

But advocates for children and the hungry say one in five children in Florida go hungry during the summer because their families cannot afford enough groceries to make up for the free meals they got at school during the academic year.

“Florida has an opportunity to correct the egregious error made by DeSantis in 2024 when he decided to politicize food insecurity,” House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa said in a news release. “Floridians have had to suffer through political stunt after political stunt by this governor while they’re trying to address their affordability crisis.”

Florida was one of 13 states that decided not to participate in the 2024 summer program, called SUN Bucks, missing out on sharing $2.6 billion in federal food assistance benefits, House Democrats said in the letter.

The governor’s office and the department of children and families, which ran similar programs during the COVID-19 pandemic, did not respond Wednesday to requests for comment about the letter.

SUN Bucks is a new program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which also runs the federal school lunch program.

The state would have had to put up $13 million, or half the administrative costs, to make SUN Bucks available to 2.1 million children this summer. The program would have provided families $120 per child to spend on groceries at local stores when schools were out of session. Democrats estimated the program would have had a $466 million economic impact on the state.

Fewer than 10% of the 672,324 elementary school children in Florida who get free or reduced-price lunches during the school year receive a summer lunch, according to a report by the Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit organization working to end poverty-related hunger.

“Summer always means more demand as low-income families with very tight budgets absorb the extra financial hit of one or more children eating at home,” Greg Higgerson, chief development officer for Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, said last month.

So it seemed like a betrayal to O’Neal when he discovered that organization he supported for nine years donated $250,000 to the group pushing for voters to approve a  ballot measure that would enshrine the right to kill bears and other wildlife in the state constitution.

“People unknowingly are buying license plates whose revenue is going to an organization that is promoting activities they absolutely abhor,” O’Neal said. “I thought this money was supposed to protect animals, not put them in the crosshairs.”

The Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida donation represents 31% of the $805,000 raised so far by the Vote Yes on Amendment 2 political committee, which wants voters to make hunting and fishing a “forever” right and the preferred method for managing wildlife.

The political contribution came from donations, not the revenue from specialty license plate fees, the foundation said.

“None of our license plate funds were used for the donation,” foundation spokeswoman Michelle Ashton replied in an email to the Orlando Sentinel.

The foundation raised $1.8 million in license plate sales last year, according to records from the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

The foundation is the “citizen support arm” of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The political donation reflects its mission, which is “the conservation of all Florida wildlife and fostering traditional outdoor recreation, including hunting, fishing, boating, birding, etc,” Ashton wrote.

That does little to appease O’Neal, a longtime environmental activist from Apopka who runs Speak Up Wekiva and created the NoTo2 political committee to fight Amendment 2’s passage.

“What matters is that the donation came from the organization that receives the revenue from the license plate,” and people in Florida believe that organization has a mission to protect wildlife, he said.

Amendment 2 is part of a nationwide movement by national hunting groups, sportsmen’s associations, and the National Rifle Association’s legislative arm to get states to make hunting and fishing part of their constitutions. The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, a sportmen’s group that focuses on public policy, came up with the recommended ballot language.

So far 24 states have adopted similar measures.

Unlike the popular amendments to legalize recreational marijuana and protect abortion rights that are also on the November ballot, the hunting and fishing amendment was not citizen-driven, O’Neal said.

Instead, the hunting groups lobbied the Florida Legislature, which voted overwhelmingly to put the measure on the ballot. It passed with a total vote of 154-1 in the two chambers, with only Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, voting against it.

But even some lawmakers who voted for the amendment said they didn’t think it was necessary.

“It would be like preserving tennis. I mean, seriously, I don’t understand why we’d be doing this,” Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, said during a committee meeting on the bill in March of 2023.”

The movement arose to combat anti-cruelty measures and laws that supporters contend go too far by criminalizing hunting and fishing under certain circumstances. Several states in recent years have banned hunting contests and the hunting of predators and non-game animals, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Association reported.

And in Oregon in 2022 environmental groups sought to criminalize all hunting and fishing with a measure that missed being on the ballot by 20,000 votes.

“We know there are threats to our hunting and fishing traditions,” said Luke Hilgemann, chairman of the national movement and president and CEO of the International Order of T. Roosevelt, a pro-hunting lobbying group, whose political arm also donated $250,000 to Florida’s Amendment 2 campaign. Hilgemann filed the paperwork to register the Vote Yes on Amendment 2 political action committee in Florida and is listed as its chair.

The Florida Legislature already adopted a law in 2002 stating the same protections, but making it a constitutional right makes it harder to change, Hilgemann said.

“There isn’t a threat today but there might be one tomorrow,” said Josh Kellam, a foundation board member and former FWC commissioner who chairs the Amendment 2 campaign.

Hunting and fishing are a huge part of Florida’s heritage, and a big source of revenue, Kellam said. Amendment 2’s campaign literature says fishing draws $13.8 billion in annual economic impact for Florida and supports 120,000 jobs, while hunting raises another $2 billion a year and supports 14,300 jobs.

The amendment would need approval from at least 60% of voters to pass. A Florida Chamber of Commerce poll shows 74% support for the amendment.

The amendment, Kellam added, could help boost wildlife protection. In North Carolina, for example, a similar amendment is being used by environmentalists to try to force the state to enact fishing regulations, including a  ban on gill netting.

Environmentalists counter that shortly after the North Carolina amendment was adopted in 2018, the state authorized black bear hunting on 92,500 acres previously designated as a bear refuge.

“Our wildlife is threatened enough as it is,” said Amy Tidd, a Rockledge political consultant and longtime environmental activist.

She has had a “Conserve Wildlife” bear plate on her car since 2008 and was outraged that the wildlife foundation is supporting an amendment that could make it easier to approve more bear hunts.

“It’s like supporting the American Cancer Society and finding out they’re giving money to the tobacco industry,” Tidd said.

So it seemed like a betrayal to O’Neal when he discovered that organization he supported for nine years donated $250,000 to the group pushing for voters to approve a  ballot measure that would enshrine the right to kill bears and other wildlife in the state constitution.

“People unknowingly are buying license plates whose revenue is going to an organization that is promoting activities they absolutely abhor,” O’Neal said. “I thought this money was supposed to protect animals, not put them in the crosshairs.”

The Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida donation represents 31% of the $805,000 raised so far by the Vote Yes on Amendment 2 political committee, which wants voters to make hunting and fishing a “forever” right and the preferred method for managing wildlife.

The political contribution came from donations, not the revenue from specialty license plate fees, the foundation said.

“None of our license plate funds were used for the donation,” foundation spokeswoman Michelle Ashton replied in an email to the Orlando Sentinel.

The foundation raised $1.8 million in license plate sales last year, according to records from the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

The foundation is the “citizen support arm” of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The political donation reflects its mission, which is “the conservation of all Florida wildlife and fostering traditional outdoor recreation, including hunting, fishing, boating, birding, etc,” Ashton wrote.

That does little to appease O’Neal, a longtime environmental activist from Apopka who runs Speak Up Wekiva and created the NoTo2 political committee to fight Amendment 2’s passage.

“What matters is that the donation came from the organization that receives the revenue from the license plate,” and people in Florida believe that organization has a mission to protect wildlife, he said.

Amendment 2 is part of a nationwide movement by national hunting groups, sportsmen’s associations, and the National Rifle Association’s legislative arm to get states to make hunting and fishing part of their constitutions. The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, a  hunting group focuses on public policy, came up with the recommended ballot language.

So far 24 states have adopted similar measures.

Unlike the popular amendments to legalize recreational marijuana and protect abortion rights that are also on the November ballot, the hunting and fishing amendment was not citizen-driven, O’Neal said.

Instead, the hunting groups lobbied the Florida Legislature, which voted overwhelmingly to put the measure on the ballot. It passed with a total vote of 154-1 in the two chambers, with only Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, voting against it.

But even some lawmakers who voted for the amendment said they didn’t think it was necessary.

“It would be like preserving tennis. I mean, seriously, I don’t understand why we’d be doing this,” Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, said during a committee meeting on the bill in March of 2023.”

The movement arose to combat anti-cruelty measures and laws that supporters contend go too far by criminalizing hunting and fishing under certain circumstances. Several states in recent years have banned hunting contests and the hunting of predators and non-game animals, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Association reported.

And in Oregon in 2022 environmental groups sought to criminalize all hunting and fishing with a measure that missed being on the ballot by 20,000 votes.

“We know there are threats to our hunting and fishing traditions,” said Luke Hilgemann, chairman of the national movement and president and CEO of the International Order of T. Roosevelt, a pro-hunting lobbying group, whose political arm also donated $250,000 to Florida’s Amendment 2 campaign. Hilgemann — who is from WIsconsin — filed the paperwork to register the Vote Yes on Amendment 2 political action committee in Florida and is listed as its chair.

The Florida Legislature already adopted a law in 2002 stating the same protections, but making it a constitutional right makes it harder to change, Hilgemann said.

“There isn’t a threat today but there might be one tomorrow,” said Josh Kellam, a foundation board member and former FWC commissioner who chairs the Amendment 2 campaign.

Hunting and fishing are a huge part of Florida’s heritage, and a big source of revenue, Kellam said. Amendment 2’s campaign literature says fishing draws $13.8 billion in annual economic impact for Florida and supports 120,000 jobs, while hunting raises another $2 billion a year and supports 14,300 jobs.

The amendment would need approval from at least 60% of voters to pass. A Florida Chamber of Commerce poll shows 74% support for the amendment.

The amendment, Kellam added, could help boost wildlife protection. In North Carolina, for example, a similar amendment is being used by environmentalists to try to force the state to enact fishing regulations, including a  ban on gill netting.

Environmentalists counter that shortly after the North Carolina amendment was adopted in 2018, the state authorized black bear hunting on 92,500 acres previously designated as a bear refuge.

“Our wildlife is threatened enough as it is,” said Amy Tidd, a Rockledge political consultant and longtime environmental activist.

She has had a “Conserve Wildlife” bear plate on her car since 2008 and was outraged that the wildlife foundation is supporting an amendment that could make it easier to approve more bear hunts.

“It’s like supporting the American Cancer Society and finding out they’re giving money to the tobacco industry,” Tidd said.

The behind-closed-doors unanimous ruling on June 26 from the Florida Commission on Ethics became public Wednesday in a brief news release that also found no probable cause DeSantis violated ethics rules by not reporting donor-paid airplane trips he took while campaigning for governor.

The simulator was given to the Florida Governor’s Mansion by Daytona Beach developer Morteza “Mori” Hosseini, a longtime supporter of DeSantis who has given the governor tickets to play golf at Augusta National Golf Club and has lent his private jet to the governor’s campaign.

Hosseini, also chair of the University of Florida’s board of trustees, has been a frequent guest at the governor’s mansion and a VIP at his inaugurations.

The commission concluded the simulator, though initially intended as a gift to DeSantis, was actually a gift to the state because it will remain in the governor’s mansion after DeSantis leaves office. That means DeSantis was not required to report it, it said.

“The decision was made behind closed doors, and that raises concerns about government transparency,” said Michael Barfield, research director for the Florida Center for Government Accountability. “Public confidence of the integrity of ethics rulings is undermined when the decisions are not made openly.”

The brevity of the two-paragraph public press release didn’t help, Barfield said. “The public deserves a thorough explanation of the rationale behind the decision.”

There is also a potential conflict of interest, he said. The commission is made up of nine members, five appointed by DeSantis, including its chair. The commission chair is Ashley Lukis, wife of Adrian Lukis, a former chief of staff for DeSantis and a lobbyist with the politically powerful Ballard Partners, whose founder Brian Ballard has supported DeSantis.

Ashley Lukis is also deputy chair of the litigation department for the GrayRobinson law firm, which earned more than $3 million for legal work it did representing the governor in court for the last 12 months. A third of that, or $1 million, was billed to the governor’s office in the month after the commission dropped the ethics complaints against him.

“In a judicial setting, a judge would have recused themselves,” Barfield said.

Neither DeSantis’ office nor the commission responded to requests for comment Friday.

The complaint against DeSantis filed by Victor Obringer of Sarasota last June accused DeSantis of accepting the golf simulator as a gift for his home without disclosing it on his quarterly gift reports, and then granting the donor a political favor.

Hosseini, chairman of ICI Homes, has donated nearly $3.5 million over nearly two decades under his own name and through several of his corporations to the Republican Party, GOP candidates and other conservative committees and close to $300,000 to DeSantis and his PAC, according to state campaign records reviewed by the Orlando Sentinel.

Obringer’s complaint doesn’t specify what favor Hosseini received in return for the golf simulator, but in 2023 the DeSantis administration pushed state transportation officials to steer $92 million in leftover COVID-19 relief funds toward an interchange project that would benefit one of Hosseini’s developments. Using those funds sped up the interchange project by a decade, more quickly providing transportation access to land that Hosseini wants to develop.

A seven-page preliminary investigative report by the ethics commission, which was also released this week, detailed what its investigators determined when they looked into the case.

The report said Obringer, who could not be reached for comment, learned of the gift from a newspaper account. The investigators found several reports online about DeSantis receiving the golf simulator and questioned whether he had to report it as a gift as required under state law.

Hosseini told ethics investigators that he met DeSantis around 2011 or 2012 when he first ran for Congress and the two became friends who frequently golfed together. DeSantis is an avid golfer who met his wife over a bucket of golf balls at a driving range in Jacksonville.

Once DeSantis was elected governor, however, he didn’t have time to play golf with Hosseini due to the “time constraints, notoriety and security issues” that went with being governor, according to the report.

Hosseini told DeSantis that he would buy the governor a golf simulator so he could “keep his skills honed.”  DeSantis wanted to run it by staff to see if it was okay, so Hosseini talked to then-deputy general counsel and ethics officer James Uthmeier, who decided Hosseini could loan the simulator to the Governor’s Mansion Commission.

Although Hosseini said he originally intended the simulator for DeSantis, he later decided all of the governor’s staff should use it, including his security detail.

Governor’s mansion manager Jerred Hopkins told investigators the simulator was set up in an area of a cabana that was used as a gym. Hopkins said it was in a private part of the mansion designated for the “first family only,” which no staff were allowed to enter except for cleaning and maintenance.

But Hopkins said the simulator was state property and inventoried by the state Department of Management Services and will remain at the mansion when DeSantis leaves office. The governor’s mansion inventory list shows the simulator being acquired Sep. 19, 2019 and gave it a “acquisition cost” of “$1.00,” with a notation that it was donated.

Lawyers for the governor argued the simulator doesn’t qualify as a gift because it falls under an exemption for public purpose, that public purpose being the “physical health and wellness” of the governor.

The assistant attorney general representing the Commission on Ethics recommended a finding of no probable cause, accepting the argument made by the governor’s lawyers that the golf simulator ultimately became a gift to the state.

“That is a convenient after-the-act explanation that circumvents the disclosure requirement,” Barfield said.

The other complaint, filed by the nonprofit voting rights organization Campaign Legal Center last July and based on a May, 2023 article in the The New York Times article, said DeSantis failed to disclose several airplane rides provided as gifts by And To The Republic, a conservative social education organization started up around the same time DeSantis began running for president.

The group arranged nearly a dozen speaking events in eight states for DeSantis in February, March and April of 2023 and arranged the air travel, including one trip on a jet owned by Miami hotel owner Jeffery Soffer and another on a plane owned by Waffle House, the preliminary investigation confirmed.

Lawyers for DeSantis said the air travel paid by the host didn’t need to be reported because it is considered an honorarium— a token of appreciation for speaking at the event. The commission’s advocate agreed, noting that the commission had ruled similarly in a previous case.

“Consequently there was no requirement to disclose the transportation as alleged,” the advocate said.

But the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles didn’t say why.

The move sidelines — at least for now — a troubled effort to bring Florida drivers licenses into the digital age. From the beginning, the app has been plagued with glitches that limited its utility.

As of this week, the agency’s website FAQ page for the app said: “The Florida Smart ID applications will be updated and improved by a new vendor. At this time, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles is removing the current Florida Smart ID application from the app store.”

A notification sent out Wednesday to residents who downloaded the app said: “Once a new vendor is selected, improvements will be made to the Florida Smart ID application.” The new app should be developed by early 2025, the notice said.

In the meantime, the notice said, people should remove the app from their smart devices since it is not functional.

“Please note, your data remains secure with the Department,” the notice said.

Computer systems within the state’s Department of Health and Department of Juvenile Justice were hacked earlier this year.

When asked for a response, a FLHSMV spokeswoman said: “We have received your email and will be in touch.”

Several users were surprised by the app’s disappearance.

“I’ve been using the Florida Smart ID app for awhile and just received an email out of the blue that they are redeveloping with a new vendor and thus the Virtual ID can’t be used until 2025. What the heck. Florida is such a mess,” Korin Reid from Wellington posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Fringe festivals to DeSantis: We’ll give money back if you fund other arts groups

Josh Buonocore responded that he hopes Florida switches to Apple or Google Wallets. “But I’m relieved to see that while the state isn’t happy with the vendor and removed it, our ‘data remains secure with the Department,’ lolol.”

The agency contracted with Thales Defense and Security, a Clarksburg, Maryland-based subsidiary of a French company, in July 2020 to develop the app for $1.8 million as part of its modernization efforts. Thales received $1.05 million in 2021 for developing it and another $400,000 in June for maintenance, according to state purchase orders.

According to IDScan.net, the agency soft launched the app in 2022 — which allowed people to download their driver’s license information onto their smart device and have it displayed as a QR code or bar code scan.

Initially, the state didn’t require Florida law enforcement agencies or businesses to accept the digital ID and people still had to carry their printed license with them while driving. But later the state said the app could be used in place of a physical license.

Still, it never gained wide popularity amid reports it was difficult to use. Florida has issued an estimated 18 million driver’s licenses, but as of 2023 the app has only been downloaded 154,000 times, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

People reported that it couldn’t be downloaded into Apple Wallet or they had difficulty activating it or taking a required selfie.

PCMag reported a Thales spokesperson said the company’s contract with the agency expired June 30.

“The project has now entered a new phase in which the FLHSMV requirements have evolved, necessitating a retender,” Thales told PCMag. “Thales chose not to compete in this tender. However, we are pleased to have been a part of this pioneering solution and wishes it continued success.”

Apopka-based hemp grower and CBD dispensary owner Patrick O’Brien donated $100,000 to the governor’s Florida Freedom Fund on June 25, campaign records show. DeSantis vetoed the bill June 7 after weeks of dropping hints that he planned to do so.

“There was no quid pro quo associated with our donation.” O’Brien said in a texted response to a question from the Orlando Sentinel. “Our support for Governor DeSantis stems from a shared commitment to economic freedom and individual liberties, not from any promised actions in return.”

O’Brien is CEO of Chronic Guru, a five-acre hemp farm in Apopka with dispensaries in Sanford and Orlando and plans to expand into Tampa and North Carolina.

His check is the largest single donation so far to the governor’s political committee, which has raised $121,000 since it was registered in May, according to the latest campaign finance records that go through June 28.

Chaired by the governor’s chief of staff James Uthmeier, who also led chaired governor’s failed presidential campaign, the political action committee was set up to target the popular recreational marijuana and abortion protection amendments, which are both on Florida’s ballot in November.

A recent Fox News poll showed well over 60% of voters support the measures, the amount needed for passage.

Uthmeier did not respond to an email seeking comment on the donation.

DeSantis, who signed a bill last year banning abortions after six weeks except in the case of rape or incest, opposes the abortion amendment. It would make abortion constitutionally protected in Florida up to viability, or about 24 weeks.

DeSantis also has been outspoken in his opposition to the adult-use marijuana amendment, painting a dire picture of its consequences if it passes.

“The weed one doesn’t just decriminalize marijuana, it’s a license to have it anywhere you want,” DeSantis said during a news conference in April. “This state will start to smell like marijuana in our cities and towns. It will reduce our quality of life.”

At a more recent public appearance, DeSantis said if the amendment passes, people “will be able to bring 20 joints to an elementary school.”

But when it comes to hemp, DeSantis took the side of the hemp industry, which took off in Florida after legislation was approved that conformed state law with a 2018 federal farm bill that legalized hemp and took it off the Controlled Substances Act.

Hemp seeds and oils now are sold in a variety of products, including milk, oil and gummies, that are touted as pain relievers, sleep aids and anti-anxiety cures.

In his veto message, DeSantis said the hemp bill would have imposed “debilitating regulatory burdens” on those businesses and caused “dramatic disruption and harm to many small retail and manufacturing businesses.”

It would have banned two types of the psychoactive substance found in trace amounts in hemp and placed limits on the amount of another substance found in hemp.

O’Brien ran a grassroots campaign against the hemp bill, posting billboards across the state warning that SB 1698 would harm family farms, 10,000 small business owners and 100,000 jobs. His campaign also had thousands of people send emails, letters and phone calls to the governor’s office, urging a veto.

The governor’s office reported receiving 7,665 emails opposing the bill and 65 for it.

“Their collective efforts were crucial in defeating legislation that would have criminalized legal hemp business owners and their customers,” O’Brien said.

The timing of the ads coincided with speculation Trump will soon announce his choice for a running mate and as President Biden faces mounting pressure to step down after an unsteady debate performance.

The ads — which appeared in five locations — link Trump to Project 2025, a 900-page blueprint for changing the United States the former president has claimed to know nothing about. The billboards called Project 2025 Trump’s plan for “revenge and retribution,” and describe it as “terrifying” and “dystopian.”

Project 2025 is a collection of conservative policy proposals by the Heritage Foundation to consolidate presidential power, reshape federal government, and replace veteran bureaucrats with political appointees.

“Donald Trump’s Project 2025 is the biggest threat to our American way of life we’ve faced in generations,” said Abhi Rahman, spokesman for the DNC.

Rahman called Project 2025 “an extreme, anti-choice and anti-democracy agenda,” and blamed Trump’s “handpicked Supreme Court” for overturning Roe V. Wade, which led to states across the country, including Florida, approving stricter regulations on access to abortions.

The RNC on Monday adopted a draft 2024 platform that reflects Trump’s positions, making it more nationalistic but less socially conservative than the 2016 and 2020 platforms, The New York Times and The Washington Post reported.

It doesn’t mention a federal ban on abortion and removes references from previous GOP platforms to traditional marriage as being between a man and a woman. It does call for mass deportation for people found to be in the country illegally, harsh anti-trade tariffs, and broad executive powers to remove so-called “radical” policies in academia, the military and U.S. government, the Times reported.

Rahman said the RNC didn’t include a federal ban on abortion “because they know it’s a losing issue for them.”

Trump was scheduled to go on at 7 p.m. On Truth Social, his social media platform, he promised “big crowd and great energy!” The Republican National Convention begins Monday.

“The Biden administration has failed us time and time again. Our country needs Republican leadership now more than ever,” the RNC website said.

Biden, who spoke Tuesday at a NATO summit in Washington, has been seeking to energize his own campaign while resisting all calls to step down as the nominee.

His campaign said it is focused on defeating Trump in November.

“Floridians, along with all Americans, will have even less rights if he takes back the White House,” Rahman said.

But advocates for the hungry say the numbers tell a different story.

“The perception put forward by the state is that there is no need for other programs in the state,” said Sky Beard, the Florida director for the non-profit No Kid Hungry organization. “I wish it were true!”

While it’s too late for Florida to change course in time to affect kids this summer, 185 groups that seek to end hunger recently sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state leaders urging Florida to apply for the money by the Aug. 15 deadline for 2025.

“Every summer is a hungry time for kids.” Beard said.

One in five children in Florida are experiencing hunger because their families cannot afford enough groceries to make up for the free meals they got at school during the academic year, according to a recent report by Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks, pantries and community organizations dedicated to ending hunger.

Fewer than 10% of the 672,324 elementary school children in Florida who get free or reduced-price lunches during the school year receive a summer lunch, says a report by the Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit organization working to end poverty-related hunger.

“Summer always means more demand “as low-income families with very tight budgets absorb the extra financial hit of one or more children eating at home,” said Greg Higgerson, chief development officer for Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.

Second Harvest said in the past year the number of people using its online search tool to find food pantries jumped 95%.

Florida officials in December turned down a chance to get $259 million through SUN Bucks, a new program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which also runs the school lunch program.

The new program would have provided $120 in grocery money each to the parents of about 2.1 million Florida school-aged children who receive free or reduced-price school lunches during the school year, advocates said.

Florida was one of 12 states that opted not to participate in the program.

Mallory McManus, a spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Families, which administers the federal school lunch program for Florida, has said that Florida had no need for the additional resources.

“We anticipate that our state’s full approach to serving children will continue to be successful this year without any additional federal programs that inherently always come with some federal strings attached,” she told the Sentinel in December and other news outlets as recently as June 21.

McManus did not say what that “full approach” entailed, what other programs Florida offers to food insecure children or what strings are on the federal money, other than the requirement for the state to contribute to administrative costs.

But Beard said the state manages several other federal food assistance programs with similar “strings” to SUN Bucks, including the school-year lunch program.

Florida would have needed to put up $12 million to share the administration costs of running the new program, state officials said, a small fraction of the money it would have received in return.

This isn’t the first time Florida balked at participating in a federal food assistance program. In 2021, the state turned down more than $800 million that would have fed 2.2 million children during the COVID-19 pandemic, but reconsidered when it was pressured by nonprofits and politicians to take the money.

The department continued to administer the pandemic-related summer food assistance program for two more years, but it ended last summer.

The new SUN Bucks program aimed to replace it.

Because of the state’s decision, Florida’s neediest families are not getting the benefits of the new program —  $40 a month per child, or $120 for the entire summer, that parents could have spent at a grocery store or farmer’s market, Beard said.

“The state has nothing to stand in the place of the loss of SUN Bucks,” she said.

The new program would have complemented other summer meal programs provided by the state, such as Summer BreakSpot, another federal program that provides up to 16 million meals to children at hundreds of locations across the state.

Not all needy families can get their children to those locations where breakfast and lunch is served, however, so its reach is far less than the school-based meals. That makes SUN Bucks more convenient as parents would be able to buy food for the home, Beard said.

“This is a statewide concern that affects colleagues, friends and families in our communities that are really challenged,” Beard said, “It would be highly unfortunate that Florida didn’t take advantage of that in 2025,” she added.

The bills also had support from organizations as disparate as the NAACP, the Chamber of Commerce and the conservative Institute for Justice.

“Vetoing these bills won’t make anyone safer,” State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said. “And it will make it harder for people who serve their time to search for employment and further feeds into the systemic racism that is clearly evident in our criminal justice system.”

DeSantis said he felt the bills either rewarded criminals or made communities less safe.

Desmond Meade, president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, said the governor’s veto messages on the bills didn’t have a lot of substance. “All I saw was political rhetoric,” Meade said.

The fact the bills got to the governor’s desk at all was “nothing short of a miracle,” he said. “When I see something like this arrive on the governor’s desk that both sides support, it deserves a closer look.”

One bill, SB 62,  would have ensured that Florida inmates could still qualify for in-state tuition upon release. That would save them $490 per credit hour compared to out-of-state tuition — or close to $15,000 a year for a full-time course load.

The bill passed the House 109-5 and the Senate unanimously.

“We should not reward criminal activity by providing inmates with the same benefits as law-abiding citizens,” DeSantis said in his veto message issued Tuesday.

Sponsored by two Republicans, House Bill 1241 would have ensured that parolees aren’t automatically sent back to prison for non-violent parole violations, such as being late for a meeting with a probation officer, Eskamani said.

The bill also would have required courts to modify, rather than revoke, probation if a person meets specific criteria and has fewer than two previous violations of probation resolved by the court. It also limited the jail sentence a court may impose to 90 days for a first low-risk violation and 120 days for a second low-risk violation.

It passed both chambers unanimously and had support of conservative groups, including the Christian Coalition.

In his veto message issued Tuesday, DeSantis said the bill would have given felons an extra and undue chance to stay on probation.

Finally, HB 133 — which passed unanimously and was sponsored by a Republican in the House — would have reduced from five to three the number of years that must elapse before a criminal conviction could be used to deny someone a barber or cosmetology license.

It also would have required the licensing boards to recognize education credits earned for barbering and cosmetology classes taken in prison. The Institute for Justice and the Florida Justice Rights Restoration Coalition supported the legislation.

“The bill categorically prohibits the board from considering an applicant’s criminal history within three years of the application for a license,” DeSantis said in his veto message Wednesday. Boards may have good reason to check those earlier records, he said.

An analysis by House committee staff, however, said the bill would have allowed a board to consider an applicant’s criminal history within that three-year period.

The bill also would continue letting boards consider “forcible felonies and crimes that require a person to register as a sexual predator” within three years of applying for a license.

“It is unjust to continue to punish people for the mistakes made in their past and prevent them from earning a living in the future,” Sen. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando, said. This bill could have been vital to someone’s future livelihood and helped to reduce recidivism.”

“Florida is absolutely in play,” Dan Kanninen, the battleground states director for Biden, said in a phone interview with the Orlando Sentinel.

While Florida is not a top-tier battleground state in 2024 like it has been in past presidential elections, Democrats say they are not rolling over.

The campaign has hired 28 full-time staff, a political director and communications director. and opened 13 offices in key cities across the state from Miami to Pensacola. Its state headquarters are in The City Beautiful.

“We’ll have a presence in all the major markets in Florida,” said Kanninen, whose job is to decide in which states to invest campaign dollars. “Unlike Trump, who is not investing in this state, we have a strong team of leaders on the ground who are building organizing teams.”

But Evan Power, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, said the Biden folks are not being realistic.

“We’re going to win Florida, and we’re going to win it big,” Power said.

Florida hasn’t gone for a Democrat since 2012 when voters chose Barack Obama over Mitt Romney.

Since then, it’s grown increasingly and solidly Republican. Trump beat Hillary Clinton in Florida by 1 percentage point in 2016 and he won by 3.3 points over Biden in 2020. The GOP solidified its base in the 2022 midterms with Gov. Ron DeSantis clinching his reelection by nearly 20 points over Democrat Charlie Crist.

The Biden campaign say its top priorities are states he won in 2020 —  Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The campaign is also focused on one state they narrowly lost — North Carolina.

Biden Campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillion said she considered those six and North Carolina as battleground states that represent the main path to reelection. In a podcast on Sunday, she said “no” when asked if Florida was a battleground state, prompting debate about how committed the Biden campaign was to Florida.

But campaign staff said this week Florida remains important to the Biden reelection effort and recent polls have given them hope the state could provide an alternate path to victory.

It’s why Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison came to Florida last week — to reiterate that Florida is winnable. “I feel good about the direction that we’re going,” Harrison told ABC’s Action News last week.

In Florida, Trump has seen a 6 point lead over Biden drop to four points according to a recent FOX poll, and last week’s Redfield poll showed the lead shrinking to 3 points. A CBS News poll released Tuesday shows nationwideTrump leading Biden by 1 point.

Florida will still be tough, Kanninen said, but conservative Republicans like Trump and DeSantis are out of touch with the concerns of most Floridians, like rising insurance rates and inflation, he said.

“With a changing and diverse electorate and with Donald Trump’s overturning of Roe v Wade paving the way for a six-week abortion ban in Florida, Democrats inside and outside of the state know that there is a pathway to victory in Florida,” said Abhi Rahman, deputy communications director of the DNC. “Floridians know Trump and Desantis’ failures firsthand and Florida Republican MAGA extremism, and are ready to send Trump back to Mar-a-Lago for good in November.”

Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff have all made recent campaign stops in Florida. Grassroots groups such as Seniors for Biden rolled out successfully, Kanninen said, and the Democrats have launched an ad for the second anniversary of the Dobbs Supreme Court decision that sent abortion regulation back to the states.

He also thinks the Biden campaign can build on the recent modest wins Democrats have had in Florida, including flipping the Jacksonville Mayor’s office blue and state Rep. Tom Keen winning a Central Florida seat left vacant when Republican Fred Hawkins resigned to become president of South Florida State College.

The fact that Florida Democrats have put up candidates in all 168 state and congressional races strengthens the Biden campaign, Kanninen added. That kind of showing “generates turnouts that cut into margins,” he said.

Taking back Florida would be a decisive blow to Trump’s reelection chances, Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said.

“We’re not naïve about the challenges ahead,” she said, “but we’re building the foundation of Democratic success, not just for this cycle, but for the years and decades to come. Don’t count Florida out.”

Trump has nearly caught up to Biden in national fundraising, but is sitting on the money and not using it to build up his campaign infrastructure, Bloomberg reported.

Trump raised $217 million in April and May, but his campaign and the RNC spent just $33.5 million — $54 million less than Biden and the DNC over the same period, Bloomberg reported.

But Republicans said they were in good shape in Florida.  Between the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Florida, Power said, “We have plenty of resources on the ground.”

According to Bloomberg, Biden had $212 million cash on hand at the end of May, “a record amount for a Democratic candidate at this point in the election.”

Steve Schale, a Tallahassee-based Democratic political consultant, said Democrats’ fastest path to election victory is through the key battleground states. But Florida shouldn’t be ignored and could prove crucial.

“I do think there’s a middle ground and that’s where it feels like they are — hiring staff, dedicating some principal time and investing in infrastructure and paid communications,” Schale said. “That’s not that different from Georgia or Arizona last time.”

Those two states were considered unwinnable for Democrats but wound up being hotly contested races where Biden ultimately prevailed.