‘They affect food into the community,' Feeding Tampa Bay on USDA funding cut to local food purchase program
TAMPA, Fla (WFLA) – Million of meals to feed Tampa Bay families could be at risk, due to new federal cuts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The agency announced they have cut funding to two federal programs, the School Nutrition Association and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA).
LFPA helps food banks buy food from local farmers.
Thomas Mantz, the President and CEO of Feeding Tampa Bay said they expect to distribute about 100 million meals this year, but the number could go down.
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'Of those 100 million meals, about 20 million of those meals come through partnerships with the federal government that we distribute food for them,' said Mantz. 'These cuts don't affect our funding, they affect food into the community.'
LFPA was set to distribute about $500 million this year to support food banks.
Mantz said without one of their LFPA partners, they would lose about four million meals.
'The size and scope of the potential loss here is not something we can make up easily or likely. That's a cap that's really difficult for us to fill. And so we will do whatever we can to step into that challenge but it's unlikely we could make up for that big of a loss,' Mantz said.
The USDA's website said Florida LFPA was awarded more than $24 million to go to 148 unique producers and 131 underserved producers.
Ernesto Ruiz with the Farmworkers Association of Florida said these cuts will cause a ripple effect.
'If they don't have access to this capital or they don't have access to these programs to sell their produce then the farmers are going to struggle, which is going to then affect the farmworkers themselves either with less work, lower wages,' Ruiz said.
Ruiz said there is a risk for greater food insecurities and more stress on the population that feeds the country.
'We want this population, we need this population to be resilient so the rest of the population can have safety in our food system, and that's not what we're doing at all,' Ruiz said.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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