Hungry Texans Lose Access to Millions of Pounds of Food as USDA Cuts Deliveries to Texas Food Banks
By Madeline de Figueiredo
Reporting Texas
Recent cuts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture have forced the cancellation of 396 food deliveries to Texas food banks, putting at risk nearly 12 million pounds of food valued at $19 million and intended for emergency food assistance.
In March, the Trump administration suspended food shipments through the Emergency Food Assistance Program, a federal initiative that offers free emergency food support to low-income people. The USDA also canceled funding for the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, which linked local farmers to food banks, further worsening the strain on Texas’ food banks and the communities they serve.
Food banks across Texas have been left in the lurch.
“The Central Texas Food Bank will lose $5.5 million in funding for the upcoming fiscal year,” said Sari M. Vatske, Central Texas Food Bank president and chief executive officer. “The USDA has canceled 40 deliveries of food to our facility, valued at $1.7 million, which equates to roughly 761,000 meals. These canceled deliveries included pantry staples such as vegetables, protein items and dairy products.”
“If nothing replaces these costs, at the end of the day, it will result in less food for families,” Vatske said.
Similarly, truckloads of deliveries to the East Texas Food Bank, based in Tyler, were canceled as the food bank’s leadership raised concerns about its ability to feed people who depend on it.
“The East Texas Food Bank has been notified that several truckloads of previously expected food from the US Department of Agriculture will not be delivered. This food equates to 360,000 pounds valued at $750,000,” said David Emerson, East Texas Food Bank chief executive officer. “If funding continues to be cut, this could severely restrict our ability to meet current demand.”
Feeding Texas, a statewide network of food banks, had previously received multiple rounds of Local Food Purchase Assistance funding, but the sudden cancellation of the program has resulted in meaningful losses. For the East Texas Food Bank alone, the LFPA loss amounts to 756,000 pounds of produce valued at $121,000, Emerson said.
The South Texas Food Bank said that the LFPA program had been instrumental in enabling it to buy affordable products, directly benefiting local farmers, producers and low-income people by providing nutritious, locally grown food.
“Our understanding is that the funding was pulled from LFPA due to a shift in priorities of the administration,” the South Texas Food Bank said in a statement.
Celia Cole, executive director of Feeding Texas, said Texans may get less fresh, local food if the funding is not restored.
“Had we gotten a similar amount of funding as we got in the first two rounds it would have been around $32 million to purchase locally grown food from smaller farmers and ranchers in Texas,” Cole said. “That is a loss of food that we were hoping to have; it is all excellent products – local produce, local dairy, local meat.”
Cole said that while shelf-stable foods are often donated, federal and state programs play an essential role in providing fresh, nutrient-dense foods.
“USDA programs are so important. Overall, they make up the bulk of the nutritious food supply that we are able to supply,” Cole said.
Jeremy Everett, founder and executive director of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, said that the federal government fills an essential gap.
“Federal nutrition programs account for about 90% of the food that is needed for food insecure households around the state,” Everett said. “Our Feeding Texas food banks are critical in ensuring that people can get to the end of the month and meet their food needs.”
“People in low-income households always pay the price of disruption,” Everett said. “And in this case, also the farmers.”
Advocates and food bank leaders said that the state also bears responsibility in filling the growing gaps in services.
Cole said that state programs provide extra support, such as the Surplus Agricultural Products Grant Program, that helps Feeding Texas receive about 70 million pounds of food annually. This program gathers and distributes surplus agricultural goods, mainly from the Rio Grande Valley, to food banks and other organizations that feed people.
“Had we learned of the federal cuts sooner, we may have attempted to increase funding for (the Surplus Agricultural Products Grant Program) this legislative session, but it’s probably too late to do that now,” Cole said.
Everett says Texas can do more.
“As oil rich as we are and as much as talk about the economic boom in Texas, we rank second-to-last in food security in the United States right now. We are 49th out of 50 states, which is absolutely absurd,” Everett said.
“That means we have simply chosen not to prioritize food insecure households when we have all the resources available to us to ensure that no one goes hungry,” he said. “The issue isn’t production. The issue is access.”