Federal funding cuts have local impact on Food Bank of CNY
The food demand remains high in Central New York.
'What we're seeing is a sustained need at levels well above pre-pandemic,' said Brian McManus, Chief Operations Officer at the Food Bank of Central New York.
Those levels could likely rise in the coming months, with food prices expected to increase. This comes, after President Trump slapped a 25% tax onto aluminum and steel, which houses canned goods, which is a large percentage of what the Food Bank of Central New York distributes.
'Unless things change where things become more affordable and people have more resources, they're going to continue to rely on that emergency food network,' said McManus.
But concerns are now growing after President Trump slashed $1 billion in federal food aid.
'There have been two federal programs run through the USDA that have impacted us directly. The first was the discontinuation of a program called LFPA. That's Local Food Purchasing Agreements and what that was, was funding to food banks to buy food from within their region. For us, within New York State. It was funding we have to purchase directly from New York farmers, from New York growers,' said McManus.
However, the LFPA program will no longer continue.
'It will end at the end of the summer, and there will not be a round two. Initially, it was announced that there would be a second round of this funding available, but then the decision was made that that wouldn't be the case,' said McManus.
Cuts made to the Emergency Food Assistance Program have also impacted the food bank directly.
'Scheduled deliveries of food between April and July that we had on our calendar were announced that they would not be coming,' said McManus.
So far, only a portion of the USDA food shipments the food bank receives have been cut. It's still unknown if further shipments will be canceled moving forward.
'The impact of those truckloads that won't be here through that program is not small. It's 15 truckloads of food; that's pretty significant. That would have been about a quarter million pounds of food that we were expecting to receive that we're not,' said McManus.
For now, the organization is hoping things will improve.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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