Michigan (WLUC) – “Return to long-term, fiscally responsible initiatives” was what the U.S. Department of Agriculture said about the cuts.
Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) will lose about 500,000 pounds of food, which is equal to about 400,000 meals. This will be lost by Feeding America West Michigan.
According to Ken Estelle, President and CEO of Feeding America West Michigan, the program was supposed to send 27 truckloads of food between now and July. However, Estelle was told that the food would not be coming.
This means that Feeding America’s mobile food pantries have to buy food with their own money or rely on bigger gifts.
The Salvation Army of Marquette says it doesn’t use much government money. But because use has grown by 12% in just three months, Cari Detmers, the organization’s Director of Development, is asking for help from people in the area.
It takes twice as much to buy food now, so every food pantry needs help from the community, even if they don’t get federal money, Detmers said.
About $660 million was taken away from the Local Food for Schools Program. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website says the program helps states buy food from farms in their own states for schools and child care centers.
The Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement, which helps smaller farms in the area, lost about $420 million because of cuts made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Estelle has been annoyed by how that has been talked about from the top down.
“We were told at the end of February that we would no longer get the money back,” Estelle said. “That program was brought back just last week.” That program will now run until September 30th of this year.
Detmers thinks that yoopers will get together again if government funding makes it harder to help feed people who need a fresh meal.
“Yoopers will get together. During COVID, we did. “It was done after COVID, when money was tight and food prices were going up for everyone,” Detmers said. “This town will handle the changes at the federal level much better than some others I know of.”
USDA cuts $1 billion in funding for schools, food banks to buy food from local farmers.