FILE PHOTO: Volunteers assemble boxes of food for seniors ahead of the holidays at the Capital Area Food Bank in Washington, U.S., November 27, 2024. REUTERS/Nathan Howard/File Photo
(Reuters) - Democrats in the U.S. Senate will ask the Department of Agriculture to reverse the cancellation of programs that have funneled more than $2 billion for local food purchases to schools and food banks, according to a copy of a letter seen by Reuters.
The cancellation of the local food purchasing programs is the latest blow to farmers from the Trump administration's actions to slash government spending and staff. Farmers have already seen grants frozen by USDA, commodity sales for foreign aid disrupted and a trade war with the country's top agricultural trading partners.
The letter will be sent to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins from Senators Adam Schiff, Ben Ray Lujan, Amy Klobuchar, Jeanne Shaheen and others, according to a Senate aide.
The cancellation of the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement program and the Local Food for Schools program would harm farmers in every state, the letter says.
"At a time of uncertainty in farm country, farmers need every opportunity to be able to expand market access for their products," it says.
Klobuchar is the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee. Schiff and Lujan are also committee members.
Rollins told Fox News on Wednesday that the money was "nonessential."
The two programs were launched in 2021 to support the heavily disrupted food supply chain during the pandemic. The programs have together funneled more than $2 billion to states, territories and tribal governments since 2022, according to agency data.
California and Texas have received the most money from the two programs, $230 million and $203 million respectively, according to an analysis by Reuters.
Anti-hunger and school nutrition groups criticized the program cancellations.
Jeff Marlow, president of the Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma, said on social media that the cancellation of the LFPA program "will result in thousands of Oklahomans losing access to healthy food at a time when working families are already struggling with rising food costs."
School nutrition professionals met with members of Congress this week to encourage them to oppose the program cuts, as well as other cuts to school meal programs proposed in the House budget plan, according to the School Nutrition Association.
In a 2023 USDA study, 35% of school nutrition authorities said cost was a barrier to purchasing local food for meal programs.
(Reporting by Leah Douglas; Editing by Rod Nickel)
