Food insecurity among children: How one campaign is raising awareness and how you can help

One child going to bed hungry is too many.

Unfortunately, millions of children suffer from food insecurity in the United States.

This means they do not have reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. In South Florida alone, nearly 25% of school age children don’t know from where their next meal is coming.

Since 2020, Local 10 and Publix Super Markets have teamed up to address this growing problem. Through our Food For Thought campaign, we raise awareness about the plight of hunger affecting our schools, neighborhoods and communities.

Research shows food insecurity to be associated with a host of negative outcomes for children, including health complications, increased use of emergency department services, the inability to learn and perform well academically, poorer social skills, anxiety and depression.

Local 10 and Publix have come alongside and supported local organizations fighting food insecurity every day.

We’ve planted vegetable gardens with Health in the Hood, stocked pantry shelves at Covenant House Fort Lauderdale to help homeless and struggling youth, sponsored food distributions for Mobile School Pantry, partnered with Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies of Broward County to provide essentials for expectant moms and more.

In September, during Hunger Action Month, we will be working with more organizations and filing news reports.

In the meantime, if you’d like to find out more or get involved, the list below connects you with some local nonprofits that offer programs to combat hunger and serve children in our community.

If your nonprofit organization provides food services to South Florida families and would like our Food For Thought campaign to know about it, simply email our community relations department at community@local10.com.

Our goal is to connect those who have the means to help with those helping families fight food insecurity every day. Together, we can make a difference.

Covenant House of Fort Lauderdale

Farm Share, Inc.

Feeding South Florida

Health in the Hood

Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies of Broward County

Joshua’s Heart Foundation

Miami-Dade Office of Community Engagement

Mobile School Pantry


About the Author:

Mayte Padron Cordones is an Emmy-award winning journalist and the director of WPLG's Community Relations Department, overseeing the station's outreach initiatives to benefit and strengthen the South Florida community.