22-04-2025
Uncertainly lingers for food banks, farmers following federal funding cuts
An ongoing effort to reduce government spending continued by the Trump administration as nearly $1 billion in federal funding has been cut.
The funding for that program would allow food banks to buy produce from local farms.
Greg Hall, CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania, said one of those programs is LFPA, or the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program.
'We were notified that that program was going to end June 30, and it was a challenge for us. We had used it in our food purchasing budgets to kind of add the extra nutritious element,' said Hall.
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Roger Schultz with John Schultz & Sons in North East said 2025 continues to be a tough year for farmers.
He said the partnership with Second Harvest and his farm has been beneficial for both parties.
'We already had a lot of chaos going on in the wine industry, and this had just magnified it. We're going to grow the crop, whether it gets harvested and sold for anything remains to be seen,' said Schultz. 'It's a perfect fit for us. We sell our fruit within a hundred-mile circle, so having them purchase from us rather than trucking apples in from Washington or Michigan is way more cost-effective. It helps out the local economy here.'
While production will remain the same year after year, Schultz said there's still a lot of uncertainty.
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'Fruit is a perennial crop. We have to go through all the motions. You're either in the production business with fruit or you're not taking care of stuff, and it's not worth anything when harvest comes. So, we're going to prune, we're going to fertilize, we're going to spray markets, uncertain,' said Schultz.
Despite the uncertainty with the farmers, Hall is keeping a positive outlook towards the future.
'I remain optimistic because we have great community support, both from our community leaders, our donors, from our volunteers and in times like this we're able to lean into the community and kind of come together to find new and innovative ways to find the food our neighbors need,' said Hall.
Schultz said farmers struggled last year as well, and he said this year is not looking any better.
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