Guest Author
In 2016, Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce & Foundation, testified before Congress on overcoming generational and childhood poverty.
Wilson emphasized that breaking this cycle is a moral imperative and a smart business decision.
While Florida has not yet achieved its goal of halving childhood poverty by 2030, significant progress has been made. The Florida Chamber Foundation’s recent analysis shows that the state’s childhood poverty rate has dropped to 16.9%, a decrease of 6.4 percentage points since 2016. This means 218,852 children have risen out of poverty since the start of the Florida Prosperity Project.
However, 714,768 children in Florida still live in poverty, facing hunger, educational struggles, and barriers to economic opportunity.
Poverty is central to many of Florida’s challenges, and addressing its root causes, such as affordable housing, food insecurity, and health care, offers long-term solutions. Research indicates that half of Florida’s children living in poverty are concentrated in just 15% of ZIP codes.
The Moore Agency, located near one of these ZIP codes (32304 in Tallahassee, where 43.4% of children live in poverty), has been a long-time partner of the Florida Prosperity Project, supporting efforts to cut childhood poverty in half by 2030. Over the past five years, my husband Richard and I have provided more than 30,000 meals across the state, and our firm has contributed resources to offer more than 20,000 meals to families, specifically in ZIP code 32304.
We’ve also long partnered with the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce’s Classroom Connection program, pairing businesses with Title 1 elementary school classrooms to directly support students and teachers.
Through this effort, along with other business leaders, we’ve become entrenched with the leadership, faculty and students at Riley Elementary School to help address the needs and provide critical resources. This has included a school pantry and hundreds of monthly meals, clothes, classroom enrichment activities, field trips, student gifts, and more. We believe that when business leaders provide a presence, resources and engagement in schools, we offer the best hope for helping children see the opportunities for their future.
The Florida Chamber Foundation’s “Florida ZIP code” Model is proving effective, one ZIP code at a time. No single person or organization can solve childhood poverty in Florida alone, but the local business community increasingly believes it is a shared responsibility.
Ensuring every child has the opportunity to live a prosperous life in Florida is crucial, as they are the future workforce and leaders of the state.
Community members and business leaders are urged to act and work together to make Tallahassee and Florida the best places to live, work, and raise a family. The future of Florida’s children depends on these collective efforts.
To learn more about your ZIP code and how your business can change the future of your community, contact Kristina Donohue, director of Prosperity for the Florida Chamber Foundation, at [email protected].
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Karen Moore is the founder and CEO of The Moore Agency.
