USDA cancels $18 million in funding for school meals and food banks in Minnesota
Photo by Amanda Mills/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is cancelling roughly $1 billion in already-promised spending on local food purchases for schools and food banks nationwide, Politico reported this week.
The Local Food for Schools program provides funding for states to purchase food from local farmers and distribute it to schools and child care programs. A similar initiative, the Local Food Purchase Assistance program, buys and distributes locally-produced food to in-state food banks.
For fiscal year 2025, Minnesota had been awarded roughly $13.3 million to purchase food for schools, and an additional $4.7 million to cover products for food banks. Those funds will no longer be distributed.
The programs were initiated under the Biden administration as a way to help farmers, schools and food banks weather the supply chain disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Minnesota was the first state to be awarded an LFS grant in 2022. 'More Minnesota schools will have access to reimbursement grants to support local purchasing, which will strengthen our state's local and regional markets, support small and emerging farmers, and ensure our kids are eating the freshest, most nutritious food our state can offer,' said Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen at the time.
USDA data shows that more than 100 Minnesota farmers and food producers participated in the LFPA program. Those producers will now have to find other markets for their products.
The $13 million reduction in local school food spending is about 5% of what the state spends on school meals annually, which could complicate lawmakers' ongoing efforts to pass a budget to fund state government for the next two years.
Compounding the effect of the USDA cuts are efforts by Republican lawmakers in Congress to slash school meal funding to help pay for $4.6 trillion in federal tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy.
'Congress needs to invest in underfunded school meal programs rather than cut services critical to student achievement and health,' said Shannon Gleave, president of the School Nutrition Association, in a statement. 'These proposals would cause millions of children to lose access to free school meals at a time when working families are struggling with rising food costs.'
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