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USA Today
13-06-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Federal cuts hit farmers and food banks: 'It really hurts'
Federal cuts hit farmers and food banks: 'It really hurts' The federal cuts were announced months ago, but farmers and food banks are now seeing the impacts of missed deliveries and canceled orders. Show Caption Hide Caption Farmers brace for cuts to USAID and USDA Farmers, who already operate under thin margins, said funding cuts to programs like USAID, USDA and a new trade war were concerning. Sylvia Tisdale believes in feeding the hungry so much that, at 70 years old, she attempted to climb Mount Kiliminjaro to raise awareness about food insecurity. "The altitude got me," she said with a small chuckle, "but my daughter made it." Three years later, the pastor at Epps Christian Center in Pensacola, Florida, is still passionate about the work she and her volunteers do to feed the hungry. So when one of those volunteers, Mike Stephens, wrote to his local newspaper to highlight the impact of cuts by the Trump Administration to limit expenditures to food pantries and soup kitchens through the United States Department of Agriculture, she understood why. "It hits people hard when they come and can't get as much food," she told USA TODAY, "and it really hurts my volunteers when they have to turn people away." The USDA announced cuts in March to the Local Food Purchase Assistance program and a similar program, the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement totaling more than $1 billion. Scheduled deliveries of food through the USDA's Emergency Food Assistance Program were halted or cut back. The programs are meant to help farmers by paying them for fresh produce that can be distributed to food banks, pantries and schools. It aimed to supply students and people in need with healthy, locally-sourced food. The cuts came as part of the Trump Administration's wider efforts to root out what it considers wasteful spending. When the cuts were announced, multiple outlets cited USDA statements saying the programs were no longer in line with the agency's goals. In a Feb. 13 letter to state and local officials, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said the USDA has a "historic opportunity to improve nutrition programs to better serve individuals who need additional support." "Our shared goal should be to lift millions of Americans out of dependency and into hopeful futures and unimagined possibilities," she wrote. "It will require tireless energy and new and innovative approaches to long-ignored problems." USA TODAY has reached out to the USDA for further comment. Pensacola isn't the only place feeling the impact of cuts to federal food programs. In Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro recently filed a lawsuit to stop the USDA's elimination of the Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) program, which provides funds for farmers who supply local food banks with fresh produce. Across the country, food banks and the farmers who supply them with the help of federal funds say the cuts are starting to hurt their bottom lines and their ability to feed people in need. 'Clients left crying' Stephens, the volunteer at Epps Christian Center, wrote to the Pensacola News Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network, when a truck full of food they'd expected didn't arrive. "I felt it was sad that a large number of homeless citizens were turned away due to this situation," Stephens wrote in a letter published June 3. "...Clients were left crying in the rain and shivering under the trees without food and groceries." The center serves as many as 300 cars at drive-up food distributions and dozens of homeless people at its soup kitchen, Stephens noted in his letter. Tisdale started the distribution 17 years ago when she saw day laborers early one morning outside a nearby business and made them breakfast. More than 15% of the people in Escambia County are food-insecure, so Tisdale, seeing a need, opened a soup kitchen in one of her church buildings for homeless people and started food distributions for others in need. So far, Tisdale said, the community has helped pick up the slack from the loss of other food sources. But she worries for her clients, most of whom are working people who just need help making ends meet between paychecks. "We are a staple in this community," said Tisdale. "We're open when others aren't." Still, she acknowledged, they've "always operated on a shoestring." "These cuts have affected everybody and every household," she said. For farmers, 'every little bit helps' Tom Croner is a seventh-generation farmer growing corn, soybeans and wheat in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. He said losing LFPA funding will cut into the already-slim margins for him and many other farmers. "Every little bit helps in that respect," Croner told part of the USA TODAY Network. LFPA funds also help farmers employ more sustainable practices than they might otherwise use, he added. Pennsylvania officials say the program benefits both families and the state's agricultural industry: More than $28 million in federal funding goes to 189 farmers, who have supplied nearly 26 million pounds of food to food banks and pantries; and people in need get access to healthy, locally sourced food. The cuts extend well beyond Florida and Pennsylvania: About $11.3 million in Iowa, about $21 million in Arizona, and about $2 million in Delaware. And that's just some of the states seeing significant cuts to food programs. The Iowa Farmers Union, a coalition of family farmers, said in a statement to the Des Moines Register (part of the USA TODAY Network) the impact of federal cuts "is immediate and devastating," adding that "producers who have already planned over $3 million in food sales in 2025 through these programs now face sudden financial uncertainty.' Some small farmers could find themselves facing bankruptcy, said Chris Schwartz, executive director of the Iowa Food System Coalition. More people in need, less food to give them Loree Jones Brown is CEO of Philabundance, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit and part of the Feeding America network that works with more than 350 community-based organizations to distribute food throughout a nine-county area in Southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey. She said food pantry operators tell Philabundance they're seeing more people than ever as housing, health care, food and other basic costs of living keep rising. At the same time, there is less food to distribute as a result of federal funding cuts. Still, she said she's hopeful that, even if some funding sources go away, the Trump Administration will provide other ways to feed hungry people in the U.S. Feeding America's Mind the Meal Gap map has a national county-by-county breakdown; Jones Brown said in the nine-county region served by Philabundance, the number of people who have food insecurity went from about 500,000 people in 2021 to 600,000 in 2022 and 629,000 in 2023 (the last year for which they have data). "Clearly, those numbers are moving in the wrong direction," Jones Brown said. Contributing: Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY; Bethany Rodgers,
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Weir loses state food aid as emergency program funding fails
WEIR. Kan. — One Southeast Kansas community program that receives commodities from the state is now on pause. Once a month, the city of Weir receives commodities from the state to give to residents who are in need of food. However, this month city leaders received word from the Emergency Food Assistance Program or TEFAP that funding to deliver to communities like Weir didn't come through. That caused the community to cancel this month's commodities distribution. About 35 residents from Weir, Scammon and West Mineral take advantage of the program each month, receiving canned and frozen foods. 'Some of them are elderly, and if they don't get it from us, they don't get it. You know, some of them get snap, but that's kind of in the range of being cut, too. So, if they you know, these people, they get hungry like everybody. You know, they need the food,' said Milt Alexander. Alexander says without federal funding for this program, he's now concerned about other commodities programs aimed at feeding seniors. He says they don't know if they'll be able to pick the program back up in July or not. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Foundations likely to see increased requests from New Mexico nonprofits after federal cuts
Twenty-six trucks were set to deliver groceries to The Food Depot between April and December. Two weeks before the first truck was scheduled to arrive, however, staff at the Santa Fe food bank learned the goods — a mix of expensive and tough-to-source groceries like yogurt, milk, chicken and produce from a U.S. Department of Agriculture program — weren't coming after all, executive director Jill Dixon said. The Emergency Food Assistance Program was hit in March with $500 million in cuts, the latest in a string of federal food-related policy changes. 'Food banking requires planning, so it meant that there was just a gap,' Dixon said. 'For The Food Depot, that gap translated to approximately $200,000.' Such a loss is a common story for New Mexico nonprofits these days. A new report jointly commissioned by the Thornburg Foundation, Anchorum Health Foundation and Santa Fe Community Foundation surveyed more than 200 nonprofits across the state and found 'federal funding cuts may disproportionately affect New Mexico.' About 37% of the state's nonprofits receive some kind of federal support, the sixth highest level in the nation, with one in five getting the majority of their funding from federal grants. Some $1.1 billion has been awarded to those surveyed with only about half paid out so far. The other half of that money can be clawed back — and in some cases already has been terminated by the federal government. Philanthropic funders are likely to see a surge in requests from nonprofits competing for private dollars to offset their losses, the study found, estimating foundations would have to increase their giving by 282% to replace terminated grants. 060525_MS_Food Depot_002.JPG Eloy Almoner receives groceries from The Food Depot last week. Executive director Jill Dixon said previous federal aid cuts were "small potatoes" compared to proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in President Donald Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill," which wants to strip $267 billion in SNAP funding by 2034. Foundations would spend down their savings in short order to fill those gaps, said Allan Oliver, president of the Thornburg Foundation. 'The need is really, really significant,' he said, noting 'not all nonprofits wish to be public about the situation with their federal funding.' Nonprofits — which provide about 8% of the jobs in New Mexico's private-sector workforce, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — 'are making extremely hard decisions right now,' Oliver said. 'These are agreements that the federal government made with these nonprofits — and the nonprofits are holding up their end of the deal,' he added. 'It's really up to the federal government to hold up their end of the deal.' 'Extremely hard decisions' Programs in the state focused on food security have seen a significant toll. The National Center for Frontier Communities, a 30-year-old nonprofit based in Silver City, hasn't been able to draw down about two-thirds of a four-year, nearly $400,000 Community Food Project grant from the Department of Agriculture since January, CEO Ben Rasmussen said. The grant funded a project supporting the local food landscape in the small, remote towns Frontier Communities serves. Among its initiatives are the development of an agricultural training center and assistance in increasing local producers' sales to a self-sustainable level. Rasmussen takes pride in serving communities that are often 'quite literally the last stop on the road,' he said. The center's home base in Silver City means the southwestern corner of New Mexico often serves as a 'testing ground' for new initiatives that could have a nationwide impact on remote communities — many of them Indigenous and agricultural, with low-income populations. 'We are still in compliance with the grant, and we are still moving forward,' Rasmussen said of the federal funding. But, he added, 'What's at risk is this momentum. ... It really forces you to think about what's important to you and your organization.' 060525_MS_Food Depot_001.JPG Volunteers load groceries into a waiting car during a food distribution effort at The Food Depot last week. Executive director Jill Dixon says federal cuts to food stamps will create an untenable demand at The Food Depot and other food banks. 'We are not built to be first line for food-insecure families,' she said. 'The writing on the wall' Ladona Clayton's organization hasn't yet experienced any direct federal funding cuts, but she fears revenue might dry up — and with it, Eastern New Mexico communities. Clayton is executive director of the Ogallala Land & Water Conservancy, a nonprofit working to ensure water security for Clovis, the Cannon Air Force Base and parts of Curry County by compensating landowners for retiring their irrigation wells and putting conservation easements into place to keep water underground. The stakes couldn't be higher, Clayton said: 'If we don't save, preserve, store as much groundwater as we possibly can, we don't survive.' But it takes federal dollars to make that work happen. 'We can see the writing on the wall,' she said, referring to the potential for federal funding cuts. The Ogallala Land & Water Conservancy is primarily funded by the U.S. Department of Defense's Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program — thanks to the Air Force base — and the Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service, Clayton said. She's been warned to expect steep competition for the next round of Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program dollars. About a year ago, the conservancy contracted with a consulting firm to search for other federal grant options. In the months since, Clayton said, 'Every one of those doors closed on us.' She's also applied for and received approval for seven conservation easements through the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Three have already been funded; money for two more is set to come through. But two remain unfunded. 'That is where we find ourselves, but we're working aggressively to do what we can. If the funding's not out there ... I think my greatest concern is everyone's now turning to foundations,' Clayton said. 'If we're all moving in that direction ... competition's just going to amp up,' she added. Fight for private funding Competition has amped up. Nonprofits are feeling that, said Leah Ricci, interim executive director of the Santa Fe-based Quivira Coalition, an organization focused on implementing holistic farming methods known as regenerative agriculture. The sustainable practice aims to improve land and ecosystems through biodiversity. The Department of Agriculture in April canceled the group's Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program — an initiative Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins criticized as an effort to 'advance the green new scam.' At the time, the Quivira Coalition was about a year into a five-year, $3.9 million grant, Ricci said. The organization had planned to use the money to help livestock producers transform waste products, like woody debris or carcasses, into soil amendments, such as compost or biochar. With the Climate-Smart Commodities funding now gone, Ricci said the Quivira Coalition has pared down its program. It continues to train the 13 producers already recruited. Nevertheless, the coalition still relies heavily on federal funding, with 65% of its 2025 budget coming from five big federal grants, four of which remain in place. 'We are fortunate, even with 65% of our income coming from federal grants, to have fairly diverse income from foundation grants and from donors,' Ricci said. 'We're being really careful and thoughtful about how we use those general operating support dollars so that we have the opportunity to pivot if needed,' she said. Going forward, though, foundation grants may become harder to get. Every grant program the Quivira Coalition has applied for this year has seen an overwhelming number of applications, Ricci said. The local foundations' new report includes a lengthy list of recommendations for private funders as they prepare for the surge in requests, noting philanthropy 'can and should step in' to support nonprofits. 'They want to be as helpful as possible,' Ricci said of philanthropic funders. 'They also have a limited amount of money, and they're having to make tough decisions about who to award their grant funds to.' 060525_MS_Food Depot_004.JPG A line of cars wait for food from The Food Depot last week. The Congressional Budget office estimates more than 4 million Americans would lose SNAP benefits entirely as a result of proposed cuts. Cuts so far: 'Small potatoes' From Dixon's perspective at The Food Depot, there's more to worry about. She described the losses of federal assistance the food bank has already weathered as 'small potatoes' in comparison to proposed congressional cuts to critical food aid known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called food stamps. 'The proposed cuts to SNAP [are] really what we're focused on now,' Dixon said. President Donald Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' of spending priorities is expected to strip $267 billion in SNAP funding by 2034, according to analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. The bill has already passed the U.S. House and is now being considered in the Senate; Trump wants the bill on his desk by July 4. The Congressional Budget office estimates more than 4 million Americans would lose SNAP benefits entirely as a result of the cuts, while monthly benefits would be reduced by about $15 by 2034 for all remaining participants. Food stamps are meant to be the 'first and best line of defense' against hunger, Dixon said, while food banks work to fill the gap when SNAP benefits run out. For every meal a food bank provides, SNAP provides nine, according to the nationwide hunger relief organization Feeding America. Slashing SNAP will likely result in untenable demand for The Food Depot and other food banks, Dixon said. 'We are not built to be first line for food-insecure families,' she said, 'and the proposed cut in the bill as it stands today is the largest and deepest cut to the SNAP program in its history.'
The Hill
01-06-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Federal food aid cuts will cause America's hunger crisis to skyrocket
The Daily Table, one of the largest food banks in Boston, recently announced it was closing its doors after serving more than 3 million people throughout the city over the past decade. The organization cited high food prices and an 'uncertain funding environment' as the main reasons. 'Without immediate funding to bridge us through 2025, we cannot continue,' read the group's farewell note to supporters. Pantries like the Daily Table across the country are struggling to stay open after the U.S. Department of Agriculture quietly cut $1 billion in 2025 funding back in March for food relief programs that have historically supported the nation's most disadvantaged communities. Specifically, the USDA abruptly slashed the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which supported food banks in addressing the growing hunger crisis in America. The agency also canceled the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program, USDA-led initiatives that paid farmers and ranchers to produce the food that pantries and schools distributed to those in need. '[Funding] is no longer available and those agreements will be terminated following 60-day notification,' a USDA spokesperson bluntly told Politico when the cuts were discovered. Food banks depend on federal funding to help those in need. The USDA cuts have hit these organizations hard, stifling their ability to fulfill their missions in West Virginia, New York, California, Maryland, Washington, Oregon and beyond. Three District of Columbia-area food banks have delivered 1.4 million fewer meals since the USDA action, and these numbers are certain to grow. The need for food banks has never been greater. According to the USDA's own data, over 47 million people resided in food-insecure households in 2023. Demand in Nebraska is four times greater than it was in 2018, while some food pantries in Texas are serving 25 percent more people today than before the pandemic. And in what may be the most troubling statistic of all, nearly half of the residents in Kentucky and Indiana face an impossible choice of either paying for food or covering their utility bills. The USDA actions were a potential blow to farmers — a constituency the Trump administration has vowed to protect. They also defy the Trump administration's 'Farmers First' agenda. 'The defense of the family farm is a defense of everything America has been — and everything we will be,' wrote USDA Secretary Brooke L. Rollins in announcing the imperative. 'It is my privilege to come to their defense.' Canceling these programs is a slap in the face to every farmer who relies on federal support to help vulnerable Americans receive the food they need to survive. These economic initiatives drive local agriculture and are a vital source of revenue, especially for small farm operators. The USDA cuts deepen the impact for those who already lack access to healthy meals. Before the USDA rollbacks began, nearly 10 million children were at risk of going hungry this summer due to states opting out of the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer program. Eliminating federal support for food banks will make their untenable situation even worse. And if House Republicans move forward with a plan to decimate the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program in their proposed budget bill, the hunger crisis in America could become a full-blown emergency. SNAP currently helps 40 million low-income families afford groceries every month. The House bill, if approved, would gut the program by more than $260 billion over the next 10 years to help offset the Trump administration's tax cut proposals. The House GOP plan puts an added burden on states to make up the difference in SNAP support, many of which are financially strapped and won't be able to cover the funding gap. The USDA cuts come at a time when food prices are expected to rise 3.5 percent in 2025 alone due to recent tariff increases. They will have a 'significant and damaging impact' for millions who rely on these programs for food support, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and other U.S. senators have argued. Administration officials and members of Congress alike should heed the warnings from those on the front lines who run food banks and have seen firsthand the impacts the USDA cuts have had on their ability to address food insecurity in their communities. 'We've never before faced a situation like we are in now,' said Michael McKee, CEO of Virginia-based Blue Ridge Area Food Bank. '[The] need is well beyond any disaster or financial crisis that we've seen, and the government's response is to take food away.' 'This isn't about ideology,' he added. 'It's about math.' Let's have compassion for those with nothing to eat by restoring food programs that offer them nourishment and hope for a better future. Lyndon Haviland is a distinguished scholar at the CUNY School of Public Health and Health Policy.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Washington is deciding — right now — to allow hunger to grow
I remember the hollow dread the first time I walked up to a food pantry door. The cupboards at home were empty. In the fridge, a single serving of chicken and dumplings sat, carefully rationed into two meals a day for four long days. My last few dollars had gone into the gas tank just to get to work, and I was surviving on pocket change until payday. That feeling — desperation wrapped in shame — is something you don't forget. Fifteen years later, standing in the Tacoma Dome parking lot as an Emergency Food Network staff member, I watched hundreds of cars snake around the block, each waiting for the team from Eloise's Cooking Pot to place a week's worth of food into their trunk. Their faces reflected emotions I knew well: brief relief, quiet embarrassment, sincere gratitude — and beneath it all, deep exhaustion. But it's not just Eloise's. Every day, across Pierce County, Emergency Food Network's 75+ partner programs see the same unrelenting need. Thousands of seniors, families and people experiencing homelessness turn to us — not because they made bad choices but because they've been backed into a corner by rising costs and stagnant wages. Yet while the need grows, the lifelines people depend on are being ripped away. In March, the USDA slashed over $1 billion from programs that kept food flowing to food banks and schools. The Local Food Purchase Assistance program — which strengthened both local farms and hungry families — was wiped out entirely. Then another blow: The Emergency Food Assistance Program — the backbone of the federal emergency food system — was gutted by $500 million. Here in Washington, that means up to $25 million lost in food funding in just three weeks. At EFN, that's not just a statistic — it's 19 food deliveries that won't reach hungry families. It's $500,000 in support for local farmers gone. It's a 40% hole in our Emergency Food Assistance Program allocation, at a time when visits to our network have already topped 800,000 this year — an alarming 17% increase over last year. And the betrayal isn't just federal. While both the House and Senate in Olympia fully funded emergency food programs, Gov. Bob Ferguson's budget proposes a $52 million cut to food bank funding. In the middle of a hunger crisis, that's not just bad policy — that's abandonment. Let's be clear: Hunger is not inevitable. Hunger is a policy choice. We need our state legislators to hold the line. We need our federal lawmakers to remember who they serve. And we need every single one of you to raise your voice. Congress is in recess. Your representatives are home. Find them. Call them. Tell them to protect SNAP. Restore USDA food programs. Fully fund emergency food efforts. Thank the champions — and demand better from the rest. If you've never faced an empty cupboard, I hope you never will. If you have, you know why I'm asking. No one — no child, no senior, no family — should have to survive on hope and spare change. Enough is enough. Lianna Olds is deputy director of the Emergency Food Network.
