Latest news with #SuePotter
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Federal cuts will hurt hunger relief programs in Tacoma
USDA budget cuts have shocked the hunger relief community in the past month. While previous cutbacks have had a 'somebody else, somewhere else' feel, the most recent cuts will be felt here at home, from Bellingham to Longview and right here in Tacoma. The first cut of $660 million defunded the Local Foods for Schools Agreement Program, which provided funds to schools to purchase locally sourced food for students. The Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program also lost $500 million of funding. This program provided funds for food banks and hunger relief groups to purchase locally produced food for those in their communities experiencing food insecurity. Locally, the cuts have canceled $1.9 million in funds Food Lifeline uses to supply nearly 300 food bank partners across western Washington. While Food Lifeline will look to alternate sources to replace these funds, the impact will be dramatic in the short term. The current cuts translate to 7 million pounds of food. This represents 10% of the food we distributed in 2024. A drop of 10% in sourcing means 10% less food for our food bank partners. This includes the Making a Difference Foundation's food bank, Eloise's Cooking Pot, one of the busiest in Tacoma. Each year, it serves 75,000 individuals, children, seniors, and families experiencing food insecurity. Last year, it served 229,699 households, distributing 1.7 million pounds of food monthly. 'We already distribute millions of pounds of food each year,' said president and CEO Ahndrea Blue. 'And with federal funding cuts impacting families and local farmers, securing fresh, nutritious food will become even more challenging. This could drive up costs, require additional fundraising efforts, and force us to expand our distribution capacity to keep up with the growing need. If we do not receive increased community and governmental support, the ability to serve everyone who needs help could become unsustainable.' Not far down the road is Nourish Pierce County. Every year, Nourish serves 70,000 individuals experiencing food insecurity, half of whom are children and seniors. 'The impact of these cuts will be felt far beyond the food bank doors,' says Nourish Pierce County CEO Sue Potter. 'Our 21 distribution sites are not just places to pick up food — they are community safety nets that prevent families from spiraling into crisis. When USDA food supplies shrink, demand shifts to already strained local donors and volunteers, making it harder to keep up with rising needs.' The rationale behind the USDA cuts (in the agency's own words) is 'to remove a pandemic relic' and 'return to long-term fiscally responsible initiatives.' But the post-pandemic landscape for food insecurity looks worse in many ways than before the crisis. At the height of the pandemic, Food Lifeline's food bank partners served 1.1 million people across western Washington. As the country began to reopen, those numbers were expected to drop back to roughly 800,000. But supply chain issues, food shortages and inflation have caused these numbers to rise even higher. Today, 1.7 million people in western Washington are food insecure and visiting food banks. Just last year, food bank visits increased a staggering 20%. While inflation may have slowed, high grocery prices remain. Families still face economic pressures that often end with searching for assistance, a painful tipping point that challenges our ability to grow and thrive as a community. 'The people we serve — working families, college students, military members and seniors on fixed incomes — are already making tough sacrifices,' says Potter. 'Federal food assistance exists to ensure that no one in America goes hungry, yet these cuts will leave our most vulnerable neighbors with even fewer options. Now is the time to strengthen, not weaken, the critical safety net for those who need it most.' We ask you to join us in supporting long-term solutions for food access that meet the needs of our neighbors in western Washington. Solutions that are community-informed and community-led. Please help us ensure everyone has the right to healthy, nutritious food. Mark Coleman is a former television journalist who joined the Food Lifeline team in 2015 as the director of marketing and communications. Today, he is the senior marketing and media relations officer, working to help advocate for hunger relief across western Washington.
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Federal cuts hit Pierce County food banks. ‘Prices are just through the roof.'
There are huge uncertainties facing Pierce County food banks and the families they serve, Sue Potter, the chief executive officer of Pierce County's Nourish food bank network, told The News Tribune Friday. 'I almost want to cry,' she said, tearing up as she described how local food banks are trying to maintain operations amid federal funding cuts and economic changes due to President Donald Trump's tariffs, she said. According to a statement on the website of U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, President Trump has cut more than $500 million from the federal Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) budget through the United States Department of Agriculture, including $10.5 million that was previously allocated to Washington state. There are 94,000 people, including one in six children, in Pierce County who are food insecure, according to the county government. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as 'a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food.' Nourish Pierce County serves 7% of the Pierce County population and 60% of the food-insecure population in the county, Potter told The News Tribune, adding that TEFAP is a backbone of their program. In 2024, Nourish Pierce County served 66,807 guests and had 441,003 guest visits, equating to a total of nearly 5 million pounds of food distributed, according to data shared by Nourish with The News Tribune. In 2024, 12% of Nourish's food came from TEFAP, equating to a value just under $1.1 million, Potter said in an email. Further, because the government purchases food in massive bulk quantities for TEFAP to distribute across the nation, Nourish's cost to replace losses from TEFAP cuts would be significantly higher — a price that would be made worse by tariffs ballooning costs, she added. 'My problem is I don't have enough money to buy enough truckloads to fulfill the need,' Potter said. 'It's getting harder for smaller organizations to divide it up because truckers won't move half a truck, so the vendor has to fill the truck somehow ... if you only want a third of a semi of something, you're going to have to source it more locally or wait.' She said Nourish is hoping to purchase more from local farmers to avoid shipping costs and to support the local agriculture industry, which also faces difficulty under new tariffs. Dawn Whitman, director of St. Leo Food Connection in downtown Tacoma, told The News Tribune that their food bank and children's hunger programs have been hit by recent food price increases and decreases in federal funding that contributes to their food supply through partnership with TEFAP. The St. Leo Food Bank feeds about 350 to 400 families every day, Whitman said, adding that they've seen a 22% uptick in visitors in the last six months. Despite this, the amount of certain food types the organization receives from TEFAP have dropped by more than half, such as meats, eggs and dairy products, she said. The quality of food the bank is able to offer its visitors, including the 1,900 children supported by their Backpack Program — which provides kids two days of meals each weekend — has also dropped. Whitman said one example is that instead of advocating for lower sodium nutritional soups for children in need, the bank now has to settle for offering low-nutrition Cup Noodles or Top Ramen. Nourish already expects decreases in fresh produce from canceled USDA food deliveries Potter said. Further, there has been a significant increase in recent years of visitors to Nourish's 21 distribution centers, Potter said. According to Nourish Pierce County, there was a 15.4% increase in guests and guest visits went up 15.7% in 2024 compared to 2023. 'If the USDA food gets cut, if SNAP food stamps get cut, if Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security get cut, we're going to see more and more people needing food assistance, and a whole lot less food coming into the emergency food system to support them,' Potter added. Shawn Manley, chief executive officer of the Puyallup Food Bank, said since the Puyallup Food Bank is supported by donations rather than federal assistance, their operations have taken less of a hit from price increases and federal budget cuts. However, they face a different issue: artificial intelligence. Many food vendors have begun using AI in their inventory control systems and to reduce errors in transit, which, although it helps maximize their efficiency, also means less surplus or damaged product that could go to food banks, Manley said. The USDA estimates that about 30-40% of the United States food supply becomes food waste — food banks help to capture and repurpose that, Manley said. Additionally, Manley said food bank clients have expressed concern that the economy is experiencing large shifts as a result of AI while safety nets for food security face challenges. 'I'm concerned about the viability of our local economy,' he said. 'People are feeling the pain of not knowing if there'll be a job that will give them a living wage in a couple years because of AI.' Although St. Leo Food Connection mostly relies on donations, Whitman said they buy food for their children's programs and have seen shortages in bulk food retailers as more people try to stock up on food at lower prices. Milk, meat, eggs and rice have especially been harder to come by — and they're also being donated less, she said, adding that they've had to place stricter limits on the amount of servings each family can pick up. 'It has been particularly difficult to get enough of each item, we're having to go to multiple vendors to get enough,' she added. 'Food prices are just through the roof.' Manley said the Puyallup Food Bank is encouraging its visitors to start their own agriculture projects with small gardens or compact chicken coops to help cut back on costs — a few chickens can save thousands of dollars in eggs each year, for example — and join the growing community in locally sourcing food. He added that the Puyallup Food Bank has set up a produce garden and is in the process of setting up a chicken coop to model the system for visitors. Many people may not realize how important food banks are in their own communities, Potter said, adding that a recent positive change has been an influx of local volunteers hoping to help their area. 'If (local food banks) go away, it is going to impact your neighbor. It's your kid's teacher, it's the guy at the grocery store who helps check you out every day, it's the kid at Subway… who's trying to go to college,' Potter said. 'I guarantee you know people who are using a food bank.'
