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

RHODE ISLAND — About $1 billion in federal funding cuts and pauses by the Trump administration will put more pressure on already-strained food banks in Rhode Island, according to multiple sources.

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

In Rhode Island, programs on the chopping block include the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), said.

"Making it harder for schools and food banks to serve up fresh, nutritious, local foods to students and struggling families is a shameful way to scrounge up cash for President Trump’s billionaires-first tax giveaway," Reed said. "We know that hungry students do not perform as well in the classroom as their peers who have access to regular, nutritious meals. These reckless cuts to essential USDA programs will have an outsized impact on low-income families and on the local farmers, fishermen, and food producers who have benefitted significantly from expanded local markets for their goods."

The 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 Rhode Island?

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.

Rhode Island experienced lower levels of food insecurity than the national average during the three-year period in the USDA analysis, which looked at data for 2021-2023. Of the 9.7 percent of Rhode Island residents who experienced food insecurity, 4.3 percent experienced very low food insecurity, meaning having to skip meals.

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 10.9 percent of Rhode Island residents experienced food insecurity in 2022. Among them, 57 percent are above the poverty line required to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits. To close the hunger gap, an additional $94.67 million would be needed.

How Are School Lunches In Rhode Island Affected?

The Local Food for Schools program gave students access to the healthiest foods available, and buying directly from fishermen, dairy producers, in turn expanding their markets.

In 2022, the program in Rhode Island provided more than $500,000 to the Rhode Island Department of Education to purchase local and regional produced, minimally processed, or unprocessed food from underserved farmers and producers.

The cuts will 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.

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