Children’s Day 2026

The Feeding Florida team was grateful to be part of this year’s Children’s Week at the Florida Capitol on Tuesday, February 24. Seeing so many children gathered together and sharing in the bounty of our state was an uplifting and powerful reminder of why we are dedicated to the mission of feeding Florida.

Florida’s food insecure population is over 3.2 million people, about 14% of our state. Of this, over 800,000 are children. We know, statistically, that there were children at the Capitol with us this week who are currently experiencing food insecurity — or who may face it at some point in the future. That reality is why we do this work. We want to be there to help mitigate it. That’s why we brought representation from all of our programs, highlighting the many ways Feeding Florida is addressing hunger across the state from multiple angles.

Through Farmers Feeding Florida, we rescue a wide variety of commodities from farmers and producers across the state so that no food goes to waste. These fresh items are distributed through our network of nine food banks, ensuring families have access to Florida-grown products. One delicious way we showcased this work was with our Zoodles with Meat Sauce recipe — an especially popular warm treat on an exceptionally cold day. The dish highlighted Florida-grown beef and fresh vegetables like zucchini, carrots, and tomatoes, all grown right here in our state. Children who visited our booth were able to take home a Feeding Florida bag filled with fresh vegetables, along with recipe cards and Florida Cattle Association activity books. The Zoodles recipe was created by our Florida Nutrition Education team and approved as both delicious and nutritious.

And what child doesn’t love chocolate or strawberry milk? Thanks to our Farmers Feeding Florida team, milk is also a commodity we are able to secure more consistently for our food banks. This helps ensure that milk isn’t dumped during the summer months and that families have access to a nutritious, versatile refrigerator staple. Shocking no one, the chocolate milk went first! Special thanks to Florida Dairy Farmers and Fresh from Florida for providing some really cool prizes for this station- highlighting all of the cool local foods our state offers. 

At our final booth, we had a battle for the ages– two unique Florida-grown fruits in a head to head taste test: pineberries versus starfruit. We invited the children to sample these rarely known treats and vote on their favorites. These tasty fruits are grown right here in Florida, yet many people have never heard of them — let alone tried them. 

We handed out sample plates and invited everyone to vote for their favorite. It felt fitting to cast a vote at the Capitol! By popular vote, pineberries came out on top, though starfruit made a strong showing toward the end. As one of our team members enthusiastically shared, “It’ll change your life!” While we can’t claim to have changed any lives that day, we certainly saw plenty of happy faces and heard lots of delighted “yum!” reactions as children and adults alike experienced new flavors. Our Florida Nutrition Education team recommends making taste tests and food experiences fun for kids to help create lasting change in their diets.