Ag Policy Blog

Democrats in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday sent another letter to USDA asking for more information about why funding for food banks has been canceled.

Reuters on Tuesday highlighted that food banks are facing at least $1 billion in funding cuts, based on interviews across seven states.

As first reported last week by Politico, USDA froze or canceled funds to food banks under The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). That amounted to $500 million in funding. As DTN and others also have reported, canceling the Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) program amounted to another $500 million in product not going to food banks.

USDA has not responded to questions about the canceled food-bank and local-food contracts.

The letter, led by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, included 23 other Democratic senators and two independents. The senators challenges the lost food aid "at a time when need for food shelves is extremely high due to costly groceries and an uncertain economy."

The senators added, "Due to this reported change, a number of us have heard that trucks delivering American-grown foods may not arrive. These trucks represent hundreds of thousands of nutritious meals containing poultry, fruits, vegetables, and dairy."

Vince Hall, head of government relations for Feeding America, told Reuters and the New York Times that the network of 60,000 food pantries has been trying to get more clarity from USDA. Hall noted food banks continue to see high demand for their services.

Food banks across the country have indicated they are stretched thin.

Hall told the NYT that rural communities would likely feel the deepest impact. Those emergency food programs, hall said, are "the food lifeline for rural America" because they help improve storage and distribution, two big challenges in rural areas.

The senators had several questions for USDA on funding and what kind of rescissions have been made to multiple food-aid programs.

Also see, "How Does Cutting Local Food Programs Help Make America Healthy Again?"

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Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

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