WASHINGTON (Reuters) – United States Food banks, already pressured by increased demand, say they will have fewer foods to distribute because of at least $ 1 billion cuts and federal funding breaks by the Trump government, according to Reuters interviews with organizations in seven states.
Hunger in the US has increased in recent years with the end of the programs of the pandemic era that expanded food aid. President Donald Trump’s government has promised to reduce inflation, including two US Department of Agriculture programs that helped schools and food banks buy food from local farms.
Reuters has talked to food banks in seven states that said the cancellation and pauses of the programs mean that they predict offer fewer products, meats and other basic foods in the coming weeks and months, leaving foods to those who depend on free supplies that have helped to avoid hunger.
One of the reasons is the lowest number of expected shipments from the US Department of Agriculture Emergency Food Assistance Program (USDA), one of the agency’s leading nutrition programs that buys farmers’ food and sends them to food stickers, some of the organizations said.
Vince Hall, director of government relations at Feeding America, the largest network of food banks in the country, said USDA is analyzing the program and suspended half of Tefap resources – $ 500 million – from Commodity Credit Corporation, which usually gives the department a wide set of discretionary resources for various programs.
A USDA spokesman told Reuters that the agency is still shopping to support food banks, but has not answered detailed questions about Tefap spending and why food banks are having reduced deliveries.
Continues after advertising
Feeding America talked to the Trump government about the break and asked him to make a quick decision on the back of the back, Hall said. This break aggravates the losses resulting from the cancellation by the Agency, from the Local Food Buying Assistance Program (LFPA), which funded about $ 500 million annually for food banks, organizations told Reuters.
Chad Morrison, director of the West Virginia Mountaineer Food Bank, said he saw in a weekly West Virginia State forecast that about 40% of product deliveries such as Tefap cheese and milk from April will be canceled. This will reduce the amount of food supplied by your 450 network pantries and other food programs, Morrison said.
Food banks are dealing with unprecedented demand as US hunger rates increase after years of decline. By 2023, 13.5% of Americans fought at some point to secure enough food, the highest rate in almost a decade, according to the latest USDA data. In the countryside of the United States, the hunger rate is even higher, 15.4%, according to data.
Continues after advertising
Anna Pesek, a farmer of Delaware County, Iowa, said about 20% of the sales of her Over The Moon farm last year came from LFPA, which sent her turkeys and meat to food banks across the state. The financing for this program was also cut.
She projects that her products will no longer reach the awakes without financing the agency.
“It’s a really devastating feeling,” she said.
