(C) Pennsylvania Capital-Star
This story was originally published by Pennsylvania Capital-Star and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Republicans and Democrats agree: Federal funding of farm and food bank program should be restored • Pennsylvania Capital-Star [1]
['John Cole', 'More From Author', '- July', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width']
Date: 2025-07-02 00:20:08+00:00
Amy Brickner, a third-generation dairy farmer and owner of Destiny Dairy Bar in Cumberland County, has been able to partner with the Safe Harbour shelter in Carlisle over the past two years to provide milk to people in need.
The effort is part of a federal initiative known as the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program or LFPA.
Brickner opened the Dairy Bar in 2022 and says it accounts for 10% of her farm’s market share. She looks at the initiative as a win-win.
“At the beginning, I was dumping a lot of milk, and then I started getting pigs. And so I was able to feed the milk to pigs. But it was still bottles and labels and labor that went to waste that didn’t get used,” she said. “So, I was approached by a friend of mine….(who) got me hooked up with Safe Harbor. They would come out here once a week, and any milk that was close dated, but it was still shelf stable for another week, it would go to that program, and they would give it to their residents.”
The program was established under President Joe Biden’s administration in 2021 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. At least 189 Pennsylvania farms, just like Brickner’s, are participants and provide products to 14 food banks across the state.
Last December, the Biden administration announced that its contract with the commonwealth was being renewed for three years and $13 million. LFPA has provided nearly $30 million in funding to participating Pennsylvania farms to provide fresh, locally grown products to food banks since 2022, according to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office.
However, the Trump administration announced in March that they were ending the program, arguing it was created via executive authority under the previous administration and “no longer effectuate the goals of the agency.”
Federal Fallout: Your contribution helps us continue to report on how changes at the federal level are affecting people and organizations in the commonwealth. SUPPORT
As a result, Brickner says it’s been more difficult to make ends meet as well as contribute to the shelter and the Salvation Army.
“I’m very strapped from a cash flow standpoint, not having that extra 10% come in has been pretty tough,” Brickner told the Capital-Star. “It’s hard to pay my bills sometimes, and I’ve bootstrapped this all on my own.”
Brickner said she’s still donating milk to Safe Harbour every other week, despite the cancellation of the program, because the connection “has been so amazing.” She vows to continue to do so until she can’t make it work economically.
Shapiro, state Agriculture Sec. Russell Redding, and all four chairs of the General Assembly’s agriculture committees (two Republicans and two Democrats), visited Destiny Dairy Bar this week to tour the farm, tout the benefits of the program, and urge the Trump administration to reconsider cancelling it.
“I think it’s important to note that we are all here together,” Shapiro said. “We work together closely to support agriculture in Pennsylvania, and we have all stood together in supporting the LFPA program, which is incredibly important to support places like this and the food banks that they provide their product to.”
“This is an example of what should be occupying people’s attention, Republicans and Democrats working together to support one of the principal industries,” he added.
Since the cancellation of the program, Shapiro has been front and center at various locations throughout the commonwealth detailing his support for it. The LFPA initiative works as a reimbursement program and the state doesn’t get the federal funding until after it pays farmers and provides receipts.
Early last month, Shapiro announced that his administration filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg asking a judge to reverse the federal Department of Agriculture’s decision to cancel its contract with Pennsylvania.
“We had to pursue a legal remedy. I wish we didn’t, and we’re going to work through that process,” Shapiro told reporters on Monday.
A USDA spokesperson previously told the Capital-Star, shortly after the lawsuit was filed, that the agency does not “comment on pending litigation,” and directed inquiries to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Shapiro has said the LFPA funding represents between 10% and 15% of the annual market share for a lot of other participating farmers.
State Sen. Judy Schwank, a Democrat and minority chair of the chamber’s Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, said that in her research, the Helping Harvest food bank serving Berks and Schuylkill counties has lost about 15% of the funds they were previously receiving as a result of the cancellation.
On June 18, Rep. Dan Moul, a Republican from Adams County and minority chair of the House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, penned a letter with the signatures of the other chairs of the Ag panels to the state’s congressional delegation. It urged them to push the federal government to reinstate the funds.
“Given the administration’s stated commitment to supporting small farmers and improving public health through better nutrition, we believe the LFPA program clearly aligns with national priorities and should be continued,” the letter reads.
Moul said that “this program should have been left intact.”
“We all need agriculture. We all need the help, and we need to put this funding back where it belongs,” he added.
Speaking to the Capital-Star following the tour, Moul stressed the chairs of the committees that were on hand are not part of the lawsuit filed by the Shapiro administration, but took part to discuss the benefits of LFPA.
“We’re here to say this is a vital program for Pennsylvania,” Moul said. “Pennsylvania agriculture and the food banks, and in the scheme of things, the money that was taken away is such a small speck in comparison to our federal budget.”
“Why take it away?” Moul added. “It’s agriculture. It’s food. It’s not money being wasted. This money goes to a good, good cause, and it helps people.”
Shapiro has previously said the state doesn’t have the money to backfill the federal cuts, if the lawsuit is unsuccessful.
Moul told the Capital-Star that the legislature could pass a resolution asking the federal government to restore the funding, noting the bipartisan support outlined in the letter should resonate with the state’s congressional delegation.
“I know when they got that letter, when their staff got that letter, they said, ‘Hey, all four chairman of agriculture here in Pennsylvania want this funding put back. Let’s fight for it,’” Moul said. “And that’s what we’re hoping for.”
Moul said that he’s good friends with U.S. Rep. John Joyce (R-13th Distric), and that if he doesn’t see action soon, he will lobby on behalf of restoring the program.
“I will call him personally and say, ‘Hey, John, I want you to do me a favor. Would you go, would you go to D.C. and fight to get this funding restored?’”” Moul said. “I think that’s where a hatchet was used and when it should have been a scalpel.”
Conversations around the reconciliation bill have dominated the discourse for members of the U.S. House and Senate over recent weeks. Noting that, along with the letter only being sent recently and the holiday weekend coming up, Moul said that federal lawmakers have other things on their mind.
“But as soon as that’s over, as soon as the holiday’s behind us, that’s when we’re going to have to pound on it a little bit more,” Moul said. “I’ll start making phone calls.”
Another influential member in regards to agricultural policy at the federal level is U.S. Rep. Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (R-15th District). The Centre County Republican serves as the House Chair on the Committee on Agriculture.
Moul said that he’s friends with Thompson as well and said he’d contact him.
“He has a lot of pull,” Moul said. “Getting the funding restored, I think we can make it happen.”
Other elected leaders are also optimistic that the program will return.
“I think you know my track record on these legal processes,” Shapiro said. “We win these, because the law is on our side.”
“They had a contract with the good people of Pennsylvania. This was a clear three-year contract,” he added. “They broke it four months in, and I feel confident that we’re going to get there at the end of the day.”
Brickner said she has faith in the lawmakers taking on the fight to ensure she can continue to assist those in her community who are in need, without her business suffering financially.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://penncapital-star.com/agriculture-pa-farms/republicans-and-democrats-agree-federal-funding-of-farm-and-food-bank-program-should-be-restored/
Published and (C) by Pennsylvania Capital-Star
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/penncapitalstar/
