Florida Senate Bill S0980

Florida 2025 Regular Session

• Introduced: 2/21/25
• Refer: 2/28/25
• Failed: 6/16/25

Caption

Hunger-Free Campus Pilot Program

Summary

SB 980 creates the Hunger-Free Campus Pilot Program within the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for a one-year period beginning July 1, 2025, subject to legislative appropriation. The program is intended to help public postsecondary institutions address student hunger and food insecurity. The Commissioner of Agriculture must select the three state universities or Florida College System institutions with the highest percentages of Pell Grant-eligible students to participate. Participating institutions must form a hunger task force with student representation, set goals and action plans, designate staff to help students enroll in SNAP, provide information or access options for using SNAP benefits near campus, hold an awareness event during Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, maintain a food pantry or other stigma-free food access process, create a meal-credit donation or voucher program, and survey students about hunger using a commissioner-developed instrument. The institutions must report implementation and results to the department, and the commissioner must report to the Governor and Legislature by January 1, 2027 on the program’s impact and future funding needs.

Impact

The bill creates a new pilot program in state law and assigns implementation and oversight responsibilities to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, with rulemaking authority to support administration. It also requires OPPAGA to study food insecurity on state university and Florida College System campuses and recommend any needed changes to general law, Board of Governors regulations, or State Board of Education rules. The bill directly affects participating public postsecondary institutions, student support services, SNAP outreach, campus food pantry operations, and reporting obligations.

Sentiment

The available voting history suggests favorable sentiment: the bill passed the Senate Agriculture committee 6-0, indicating unanimous support in that committee. No committee transcript is available, but the structure of the bill and the committee vote suggest the measure was viewed as a targeted, student-focused response to campus food insecurity rather than a controversial policy change.

Contention

The main practical issue is that the pilot is expressly subject to legislative appropriation, so funding could affect whether and how fully it is implemented. Another possible point of discussion is the administrative burden on participating institutions, which must create task forces, run surveys, provide SNAP assistance, and maintain food access programs. Because the bill targets only the three institutions with the highest shares of Pell-eligible students, there could also be questions about whether the pilot is broad enough or whether selection criteria should be expanded in future legislation.