Federal Funding Impact on Local Food

We know that there’s been a lot of news about federal funding and its impact on local nonprofits. This has certainly been true for us at Farmer Foodshare.

Earlier this month, the USDA announced the cancellation of two programs that have had direct impact on Farmer Foodshare: the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program and the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program for 2025.

We’re devastated by these harmful decisions.

Farmer Foodshare has been operating a food box program, largely funded for years by this commodity crop program. It’s a way of feeding kids and food insecure families that is healthy and nutritious, investing in our local food economies, and helping build local and regional farm businesses from the bottom up.

This funding had already been authorized by congress, budgeted for in previous cycles, and contracted out to the states to do this critical work. Farmers have been crop planning around this supply chain. Schools and local food pantries were counting on these boxes of fresh, healthy food to support their communities. Despite all of this, these funds have been cancelled.

Through this and other funding, last year alone, Farmer Foodshare was able to pay 70+ local farmers nearly $700,000 for their fresh fruits, veggies, eggs, and lean meats. We also packed and delivered 23,000 boxes (420,000 pounds) of local food for families experiencing food insecurity – the equivalent of 400,000 meals based on nutritious, locally sourced food. Losing this program is such a shame and has urgent consequences.

From our Executive Director, Kelly Crane: “What’s so frustrating is that I see on social media sites, when someone posts about this issue, people will pop in and leave comments like “There must be something they aren’t reporting, I bet there’s a lot of waste in this program.” I can tell you this is NOT true. This funding is incredibly restrictive. There aren’t even any administrative dollars in it; it’s purely used for food purchases, storage, and delivery. This program is efficient, successful, and lean. And a whole lot of farmers and families in our community and across the country are going to miss it dearly.”

So, what can you do?

• Make noise! Continue contacting your elected officials – federally, at the state level, and locally – to let them know what this issue and these food box programs mean to our community.
• Become a monthly sustainer to Farmer Foodshare. We know monthly donations won’t make up for the hundreds of thousands of dollars lost through these programs, but every little bit helps! Your investment in our work on a monthly basis is powerful and helps us more accurately plan on a monthly basis.
• Volunteer with us! While we aren’t packing nearly as many food boxes as we were last year, we still need your help to pack food from local farms to be distributed to our community partners. Plus, it’s a lot of fun!

We wish we had better news about what federal funding looks like currently, but the situation is continuing to evolve. In the meantime, we’re more grateful than ever for your support, and know that it’s this community that will get us through the challenges to come.

With gratitude,

Farmer Foodshare