By Jennifer Patterson
WASHINGTON — Food banks across the country are struggling with distribution after at least $1 billion in funding cuts were announced by the Trump administration.
These organizations were already strained by rising demand and food prices, with hunger in the United States ticking up in recent years, caused by rising inflation and the end of pandemic-era programs that expanded food aid.
According to the most recent United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) data, 13.5 percent of Americans struggled at some point to secure enough food in 2023, the highest rate in nearly a decade. And in rural areas, the hunger rate is even higher, at 15.4 percent.
After vowing to lower inflation by cutting back on government spending, President Donald Trump’s administration nixed more than $1 billion from two USDA programs that helped food banks and school meal programs buy food from local farms.
About $660 million of those funds were contained in the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program, which provided funds to schools and child care facilities. The rest were part of the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, which provided funds to food banks and other organizations.
The USDA unfroze funds for existing agreements, but a second round of funding for 2025 has been eliminated. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins recently described the programs as “nonessential.”
Local food banks, including the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York that helps feed 350,000 people each month, are stretched thin. They anticipate offering less produce, meat and other staples in the coming weeks and months, and are struggling to help community members with growing food insecurity. One reason is fewer expected shipments from the USDA's The Emergency Food Assistance Program, one of the agency's core nutrition programs that buys food from farmers and sends it to food pantries.
And in Schoharie County, the cuts are having a direct impact on the Schoharie Community Food Pantry, with the loss of access to USDA protein and produce. After placing a recent order, for the first time there was no free USDA meat available to the pantry, and the only meat option was hot dogs.
Created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Local Food Purchase Assistance and the Local Food for Schools programs aimed to build more resilient supply chains of domestic food by connecting schools and food pantries with local small farms. The program was initially funded by the American Rescue Plan Act and later expanded by the Biden administration.
The now defunct federal programs helped purchase locally grown fruits, vegetables, dairy and meat – benefiting both small farmers and organizations granted funds to buy high quality foods. The noncompetitive grants boosted business for more than 8,000 farmers and provided local food to almost as many food banks.
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