🥪 Main Squeeze: When School’s Out, So Are the Meals

📍 TLDR: Nearly 3,000 students in St. Lucie County are navigating homelessness, and thousands more rely on school for their daily meals. As the year ends, many kids are heading into a summer without stability, routine, or guaranteed food.

✍️ A Personal Note: My mom’s been a teacher here for over 30 years. One thing that stuck with me is school isn’t just a place to learn. It’s a place to eat, to be safe, to be seen. For a lot of kids, those two meals a day are everything.

📈 By the Numbers:

• 2,726 students in St. Lucie County were identified as homeless last year. That’s 5.5% of the district.

• 64.4% of elementary students here qualify for free or reduced lunch. The state average is 53.8%

• Over 69,000 students across Florida are living in unstable housing

🏠 What That Looks Like:

• Most are not in shelters. They’re staying on couches or with extended family

• Others live in motels, cars, or temporary housing

• Many try to hide it because of shame, fear, or not knowing where to turn

🎒 What Schools Are Doing:

St. Lucie Public Schools leads in identifying and supporting homeless students. Every school has trained staff under the McKinney-Vento Act to help with transportation, tutoring, job certifications, and basic needs like clothes and shoes

🍽️ Food Access This Summer:

The last day of school is Monday, June 2. The Summer Meals Program kicks off June 3 offering free breakfast and lunch to anyone 18 and under at dozens of locations. No ID required

👉 See local meal sites (PDF)

👉 Find nearby sites via Stop Hunger

📉 Summer Program Cuts:

Fewer kids are in summer school this year. That means fewer meals served. We explained that shift in a past update

👉 Read more here

🗣️ What’s Next:

Statewide, efforts to expand free school meals hit a wall. Senate Bill 74 never passed and federal pandemic relief funding is winding down. No changes have been announced yet for the 2025–26 school year in St. Lucie, but we’ll keep an eye out

📌 Want to weigh in?

We’d love to hear your thoughts or stories

👉 Share here