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Feed the Hungry? Not So Fast [1]
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Date: 2025-03-28
In 2023, 13.5 percent of Americans struggled at some point to secure enough food, the highest rate in nearly a decade, according to the most recent United States Department of Agriculture data. In rural America, the hunger rate was even higher at 15.4 percent.
Facing this depressing trend, what has the administration of four-time indicted, twice-impeached, sexual assaulter, tax fraudster, insurrection inspirer, wannabe fascist dictator, convicted felon, Russian puppet, President Donald Trump done?
It’s cut or paused about $1 billion from two USDA programs that helped schools and food banks acquire food for those in need, including buying it from local farmers, according to a story on the Reuters website titled, “USDA cuts hits food banks, risking hunger for low-income Americans.”
The administration has paused half of the funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which buys food from farmers and sends it to food pantries, and cancelled altogether it’s Local Food Purchase Assistance program (LFPA), which helped fund food banks.
Let’s try to put a face on this issue by looking at some real-life examples provided in the Reuters report.
*The Mountaineer Food Bank in West Virginia -- which has a network of 450 food pantries and other feeding programs – is forecast to have 40 percent of its expected April delivery of products like cheese, eggs, and milk cancelled.
*The state of Illinois had $14.7 million in funding terminated and another $6.4 million in other USDA funds frozen in recent weeks, halting a food box program that paired local farmers with food pantries.
*The Northern Illinois Food Bank, which serves 13 counties in the state, received $3 million from the now-cancelled LFPA over the last 18 months to buy onions, potatoes, apples, and other produce from local farms.
*About half the food for the Community Action Partnership’s food bank in Kern County, Calif., came from the TEFAP. With delivers paused, the group has about two to six months of supplies in stock. It’s hoping to supplement its supply with leftover food from local restaurants.
*A farmer in Delaware County, Iowa, said about 20 percent of her sales last year was through the LFPA program, which sent her turkeys and pork to food banks. She expects her pasture-raised products will no longer make their way to pantries without the agency funding.
*Trinity’s Table, a food aid group in Charleston, W.Va., said it may need to halt its meal service to senior groups altogether
You can read the Reuters story here.
Here are some other examples from recent media reports:
*The Greater Cleveland Food Bank had about 1.5 million pounds of food cancelled by the USDA. This included the recent cancellation of 20 semi-truck loads of food – about 553,000 pounds --worth about $1 million. In addition, another one million pounds of food had been previously cancelled.
The food bank serves six counties and partners with 1,000 local agencies. About 424,000 people relied on it last year, including 100,000 first-time recipients.
In addition to the federal cuts, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposed budget calls for reducing food bank funding in the state from $32 million to $24.5 million – a decrease of $7.5 million.
*My state of Pennsylvania is facing a loss of $13 million in food due to the Trump administration’s cuts, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. Gov. Josh Shapiro is threatening potential legal action over the cuts.
By the way, if you want to see the difference between a Republican and Democratic governor, while DeWine is looking to cut the food supply for the needy even further, Shapiro has proposed
a $4 million increase to state funding that provides emergency food assistance for low-income Pennsylvanians.
*The Food Bank of Delaware said it will have to cancel about 900,000 meals because of the USDA cancellations, according to a report from television station WPVI in Philadelphia.
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Why is this happening? In the richest country in the world why are we cutting off vital food supplies like this?
Simple. Let’s go back to a number we talked about in a previous post: $4.5 trillion.
Republicans in Congress are looking to pass a budget bill this year that will add up to $4.5 trillion to the deficit over 10 years in tax cuts, primarily for the wealthy.
To help partially mitigate the damage they’re ready to slash up to $2 trillion in spending during the same period, much of it from programs that help lower-income Americans – Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps (again, they go after the food), and student loan programs.
An article from The American Prospect labeled this a “reverse Robin Hood resolution,” that would “take food and medicine from the poor and give the money to the rich.”
That still leaves us about $2.5 trillion in the hole, not counting the $33 trillion we already have in debt. That’s why Trump and co-president Elon Musk are furiously cutting away at government – including eliminating tens of thousands of jobs -- with no obvious concern about the damage they’re doing. Like taking food assistance from the people who need it the most.
By the way, the tax cuts would give households with incomes in the top 1 percent, who make roughly $743,000 a year or more, a tax cut averaging $62,000 a year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank that analyzes the impact of federal and state government budget policies
Of course, those folks can already afford all the food they want.
As if that would make a difference.
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