10-03-2025
Federal cuts impact River Bend Food Bank
Cuts in federal funding continue to affect programs nationwide, including ones in the Quad Cities. River Bend Food Bank lost funding for its Local Food Purchase Assistance Program and Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program. Chris Ford, president of River Bend Food Bank spoke with Our Quad Cities News via Zoom to discuss the loss of funding and the impact it will have in the Quad Cities.
'We just actually lost funding from Iowa and Illinois, funding that was given to us via the states, but the states received it from the federal government. That funding was cut, and it's disappointing. It's certainly a time right now where there's high demand for our guests and for people that are food insecure in our service area, but I think more importantly, the LFPA program (also known as Illinois Eats) really did a few different things. Number one, it provided us an opportunity to form relationships with local farmers that we had not have had before, and it also allowed us to buy their products at fair market value and redistribute those into the communities in the surrounding areas. So, it truly was a local program.' He said as far as they know, the program is over and they're waiting to see what other changes may be coming at the state and federal levels.
The food bank was told that any funds spent after January 19 were not eligible, but they had already spent the majority of the funds they were awarded before that date. 'We were in fairly good shape for this year. It was a multi-year agreement in both states, so we got what we got this year, and, from what we understand, the program will no longer exist.'Ford says the programs benefitted both farmers and food pantry clients. 'I think it was a great opportunity for both of us. It was a revenue stream for them, and it was a new stream of food that we've never had access to before. It was really a win/win situation. There were certainly conversations, and there still are conversations about, is it possible to continue to build on those relationships? I can't emphasize the demand that we are seeing right now is significant. Even to lose a local project like this, it really takes its toll on our organization.''We have developed a few relationships through the program already. We utilize it (the relationships) for maybe the last two years in Iowa, but it had really just gotten off the ground in Illinois. So, in terms of relationships, we were just starting to build relationships with Illinois farmers. Could we work a program outside of a state or federal program with those relationships? That is certainly a possibility.'Ford says they're still figuring out the next steps. 'We are advocating both at the state and federal level, in hopes of letting legislators know how important this program was. We are strategizing, kind of behind the scenes, that if this doesn't come back, or it doesn't reappear in some other form, what are the other opportunities that we could utilize? What people need to understand is this is local farmers in local communities in both Iowa and Illinois. What better way to share their production is to have it purchased and given to people who are hungry in their own communities and surrounding areas. It was such a nice package, this worked out so well from so many different angles.' He says concerned residents can contact their legislators to ask them to support these programs.
He says River Bend is also watching developments on charges to SNAP funding because it will lead to increased demand for food pantries. 'When you cut the SNAP budget, you're also hurting the economy. For every $1 that's spent in SNAP, it generates $1.80 into the local economy, and you're feeding people who are food insecure. That is the best vehicle we have as a country to feed people. I don't think it's hard to imagine that as those people lose SNAP dollars, they're going to rely on food banks and food pantries across the United States to replace that lost food.'
'The new administration has also put a hold on some of our government funding for food that comes through the Farm Bill. We call that the Emergency Food Assistance Program and there's part of that is discretionary funding. We lost that discretionary funding as the new administration took office, and for us, that's a significant move too. We are assuming we're going to lose about 7% of the food that we typically receive from the government. In terms of dollars, we're talking about $600,000 worth of food that we will not get from the emergency food assistance program. That is significant. If we have to go out and replace that food ourselves, that would be about a 25% increase in our own purchase food budget. We want to make people aware of that also, and hope that they can advocate to their legislators to let them know that that's a vital opportunity that's being missed to feed people throughout both Iowa and Illinois.'
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