VIDEO: Commissioner Nikki Fried Holds Virtual “Florida Cupboard Meeting” Ahead of Cabinet

Tallahassee, Fla. – This morning, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, an independently-elected member of the Florida Cabinet, held a virtual “Florida Cupboard Meeting.” This meeting convened ahead of tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting, and featured state and national experts providing updates on crucial issues including COVID-19, unemployment, school nutrition, food insecurity, voting rights, election security, CARES Act funding, and Florida’s budget and revenue projections. Since March, Commissioner Fried has consistently requested that Governor Ron DeSantis include these issues on Cabinet meeting agendas. Fried’s requests have been ignored, and most Cabinet meetings have been canceled.

“Since taking office, I’ve always sought to put state before party and to support my fellow Cabinet members, including the Governor. But when the Cabinet on which we serve doesn’t provide information, and leaves state business pending for months, and cancels meeting after meeting, I’m compelled to step up and lead,” said Commissioner Fried. “This isn’t hypothetical. Floridians are asking how their government is addressing COVID-19, unemployment, feeding hungry families, and conducting safe elections. It’s our job as constitutional officers to give the people answers – and if the Cabinet can’t, and the Governor won’t, then I will.”

VIDEO: Video of the virtual “Florida Cupboard Meeting” can be downloaded here, and can be streamed through The Florida Channel here.

Issues addressed by speakers at the “Florida Cupboard Meeting” included:

COVID-19 Data: There are serious questions about the accuracy of Florida’s COVID-19 data, including efforts to silence medical examiners from releasing COVID-19 deaths, the refusal to release information on cases and deaths in nursing homes and state prisons, and the pressuring of schools into not releasing data. Rebekah Jones, founder of Florida COVID Action and a former Florida Department of Health data scientist, noted that “COVID-19 cases are trending upward for every single age group, with astronomical increases in pediatric cases and pediatric deaths, which the state has not been transparent about. Schools only opened up three weeks ago and there are already 2,000 new cases in schools – and that’s only half the school districts reporting data. We are unable to see what kinds of policies and protocols are effective, because we have no data to study what is going on in schools. Florida is now only one of the few states in the entire Southeast that is not reporting this information. It shouldn’t come down to a scientist with a group on non-profits to track this data throughout the entire state — this is the state leadership’s failure.”

Unemployment: In a few weeks’ time, over 1 million Floridians became unemployed, facing difficult questions about rent, food, medicine, and other essentials. With more than 150,000 Floridians still waiting for payment, Florida’s unemployment system was criminally unprepared for this crisis, leading Commissioner Fried to request an Inspector General investigation into its mismanagement. State Senator José Javier Rodriguez, Vice Chair of the Florida Senate Judiciary Committee, said “the DeSantis administration has not prioritized out-of-work Floridians and businesses. When it comes to the data reporting, one of the driving forces is to report those who have been paid ‘at least some payment.’ But when that’s the metric, it masks thousands who are missing months of payments. The Governor obligated us to more than double the amount that was wasted on creating the CONNECT system – and the lack of accountability on those funds is alarming, given that the system is still a terrific mess.”

School Nutrition: 850,000 Florida children suffer from chronic hunger; for many children, school meals are the only meals on which they can rely. When schools closed early, Commissioner Fried’s department quickly approved 3,700 feeding locations to serve 59 million meals to children through June. But schools have also lost $262 million with children out of school, and are facing up to another $370 million in losses of federal funding. States including Kentucky, North Carolina, California, and others are using CARES Act funds to support school nutrition programs. Lakeisha Hood, Director of Food, Nutrition and Wellness for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, stated that “When you look in the face of a $262 million loss in revenue for programs that normally operate at a nonprofit level, they’re now making decisions about layoffs, reassigning staff, and what food to serve so they continue to provide meals throughout the entirety of the pandemic. Without the additional support of federal relief funds, our school nutrition departments face a grim reality not being fiscally solvent. It’s important they be considered for that support, because they are truly part of the food security safety net.”

Food Insecurity: Chronic hunger affects people of all ages, with 3 million Floridians facing food insecurity, 500,000 of which are seniors. Feeding America projects food insecurity to rise as high as 19 percent in Florida this year, with an additional 1 million Floridians going hungry. Food banks are facing historic demand in meeting this public health crisis that impacts children, adults, and seniors. Robin Safley, Executive Director of Feeding Florida, noted that “during COVID-19, we’ve seen an increased need from 5 million to 10 million pounds of food for populations in need. The Division of Emergency Management and FDACS played a huge role in the peak by leaning in and purchasing food to help augment our supply chain. Food banks are operating 30 percent above capacity – and in many instances in the southern part of the state, we’re seeing them operating 100% percent above capacity. This is our new normal.”

Election Security: There are major concerns about the integrity and safety of Florida’s election systems and processes. More than $400 million was provided by Congress to help states prepare for elections during COVID-19, yet Florida was one of the last states to apply for its $20 million share, only after Commissioner Fried asked the Governor to do so. According to media reports, at least two Florida counties had elections systems hacked by Russian operatives in the last election. Gowri Ramachandran, Counsel for the Election Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, said “Over the past year after having become aware that election infrastructure had been targeted by foreign actors, many state and local election entities have taken crucial steps to improve election security. Last week, Microsoft announced it had detected ongoing cyber-attacks coming from Russia, China, and Iran, targeting people and organizations involved with the upcoming presidential election.”

Clemency & Voting Rights: The Governor and Legislature have erected roadblocks to implementing Amendment 4, disenfranchising more than a million Floridians. Florida’s Clemency Board, on which Commissioner Fried sits, has not held any meetings in 2020, despite overseeing a clemency system already described as “crushingly restrictive.” Since 2019, just 24 Floridians have had their voting rights restored through this process, compared to 234,000 Floridians under the past three governors. Sean Morales-Doyle, Deputy Director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, stated that “for 150 years, Florida had a lifetime ban on voting for everyone convicted of a felony, making in an outlier in the country. Over three-quarters of a million people in Florida are disenfranchised in Florida simply because of money that they owe – and for most them, for money they cannot afford to pay. The Clemency Board could still redeem the will of the people and the values of democracy that we all believe in. They can truly end lifetime disenfranchisement the way Florida voters intended in 2018. That requires the Clemency Board to change its policies, and for the board to meet.”

Revenue & Budget: Every Floridian will be affected by a looming $5.4 billion shortfall in projected revenue. While the Governor has vowed to maintain his $500 million in corporate tax breaks, he has asked state government to slash vital services on which Floridians rely. Commissioner Fried has asked repeatedly for Cabinet updates from the Florida Department of Revenue, a state agency reporting to all four Cabinet members – but those requests were ignored. Sadaf Knight, Executive Director of the Florida Policy Institute, said that “due to the nature of this recession and the magnitude of it, it will be years before we return to any sort of normal activity, much longer than in previous recessions. Data from the Census shows that too many of our families and residents can’t afford enough food to eat, pay their rent, obtain healthcare, or find jobs to move towards some form of financial security. We came into this crisis with deeply embedded inequities in our economy – and those are being even more entrenched as the impacts of COVID-19 ensue.”

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