Feds Cut $1B In Food Aid, Impacting PA Farmers, Food Banks

PENNSYLVANIA — Pennsylvania is seeking to reverse the recent federal funding cuts and pauses by the Trump administration, calling the program which would place severe pressure on already-strained food banks "unlawful."

Gov. Josh Shapiro's administration already filed an appeal Thursday to reverse the cuts and ensure the USDA maintains its contracts with the state.

“Crops are not planted overnight, and neither are food bank budgets,” Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding said in a statement “Supplier and buyer contracts are sealed months in advance. Whether you’re a farm or a food bank, you plan your operations based on what you have to spend."

The USDA is dismantling a pair of pandemic-era programs that provided more than $1 billion to local food banks under the The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program (LFPA). At the same time, they also canceled the Local Foods for Schools program.

Pennsylvania's $13 million contract for the LFPA program is completely eliminated under the new cuts.

"Losing operating dollars means losing crops and losing customers," Redding added. "Cancelled federal funding hurts Pennsylvania farmers, along with food bank customers — hungry families, children, military veterans, and seniors."

State leadership said Pennsylvania is hit harder by these cuts than many other states because agriculture is its top industry, and because the Keystone State one of the few states in the nation that relies exclusively upon the LFPA program to support in-state farmers. They say the program ensures federal grants stay within Pennsylvania.

Amy Brickner, a dairy farmer who runs Destiny Dairy Bar in Carlisle, has received a federal grant for the last three years that allows her to donate milk to the Salvation Army and Safe Harbour, a local food bank. Now that the grant is gone, she is trying to pick up bottling costs and the rest of the slack on her own.

"This winter was tough — I absorbed costs I can’t afford — but I’m proud of the work I do alongside my grandmother, mother, and sons," Brickner said.

Without federal funding, however, Brickner and others like her won't be able to keep donating forever.

The Trump administration action comes as food banks are already struggling to meet unprecedented demand amid hunger rates that rose along with inflation and the expiration of some programs that kept food on Americans’ tables during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vince Hall, the chief government relations officer for Feeding America, told The Economic Times that about half of the discretionary spending from a Commodity Credit Corporation pool used to fund TEFAP has been frozen.

A USDA spokesperson told Reuters the agency is still making purchases under the TEFAP program.

However, Reuters said the agency didn’t respond to its detailed questions about TEFAP spending or why food banks are seeing deliveries drop off. Food bank officials in seven states had told the Reuters they’re not able to offer as much produce, meat and pantry staples to low-income residents who depend on food banks to feed themselves and their families.

Together, food banks and pantries in West Virginia, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, California and Nebraska, have lost millions of dollars of federal funding and food deliveries in recent weeks, according to Reuters interviews.

How Big Is The Hunger Problem In PA?

At least 13.5 percent of Americans experienced food insecurity in 2023, up from 12.8 percent the previous year, according to the USDA’s most recent hunger data. Among these people, 5.1 percent experienced “very low food insecurity” — real hunger that comes from skipping meals, small portions and other measures to make meals last.

In Pennsylvania, about 10.8 percent of residents experienced food insecurity, while 3.9 percent experienced very low food insecurity, according to a three-year analysis of USDA data from 2021-2023.

People in every county in America experience food insecurity at some point during an average year, according to Feeding America. Hunger varies greatly among states, but also in geographic clusters. The lowest food insecurity rate in 2023 was in Renville County, North Carolina, at 5 percent. About 500 miles to the south, Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota, has the highest rate of 29 percent, the organization said in its 2024 map the Meal Gap Report, which is based on 2022 data.

The Map the Meal Gap map shows 11.09 percent of Pennsylvania residents experienced food insecurity in 2022. Among them, 49 percent are above the poverty line required to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits. To close the hunger gap, an additional $1,170,030 would be needed.

How Are School Lunches In PA Affected?

The Local Food for Schools program gave students access to the healthiest foods available by buying directly from fishermen, dairy producers, in turn expanding their markets. Pennsylvania is a major grower and crop producer and the program provided a significant boon to local farmers, who saw an influx of business.

The program had a goal of providing locally-sourced foods to 1 million students throughout the life of the grant.

"Through this program, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture will be able to work with increasing numbers of local producers, including socially disadvantaged farmers/producers and very small farmers whose production capacity can be matched with SFAs," according to the program's organizers. "Through the PA-LFS, PDA will be able to achieve the co-equal goals of this program – increasing sales opportunities for the local and regional food system and ensuring that SFAs in Pennsylvania are afforded additional resources to feed our school children during these challenging times."

The cuts will further hurt school districts with “chronically underfunded” school meal budgets, Shannon Gleave, president of the School Nutrition Association, said in a statement.

“In addition to losing the benefits for our kids, this loss of funds is a huge blow to community farmers and ranchers and is detrimental to school meal programs struggling to manage rising food and labor costs,” Gleave said in a statement.

How Are Farmers Affected?

Chad Morrison, the head of West Virginia’s Mountaineer Food Bank, told Reuters that April deliveries will see a 40 percent drop in products like cheese, eggs and milk provided under the TEFAP program, which in turn will decrease supplies in its network of 450 food pantries and other food assistance programs.

In Maine, the coastal RSU 23 school district bought food directly from fishermen, dairy producers and farmers for school meals, Caroline Trinder, the district’s food and nutrition services director, told The Associated Press.

“I think everyone can say that they want kids at school to receive the healthiest meals possible,” Trinder said. “It’s the least processed, and we’re helping our local economy, we’re helping farmers that may be the parents of our students.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting.