Latest news with #TemporaryEmergencyFoodAssistanceProgram
Dominion Post
27-04-2025
- General
- Dominion Post
Mountaineer Food Bank director: Community the antidote to volatility
MORGANTOWN — Statewide, 600 households with senior citizens — including 300 in the Mountaineer Food Bank coverage area — are no longer eligible for the state's Senior Food Box Program. In the 48 counties covered by the Mountaineer Food Bank, $1.7 million used to purchase fresh food from local farmers has been lost. In recent months, the truckloads of food distributed by Mountaineer Food Bank to local pantries and feeding initiatives through the federal Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program, or TFAP, have been cut by 15% to 30%. 'It's just very volatile right now,' Mountaineer Food Bank Executive Director Chad Morrison said when asked how recent federal spending cuts are being felt locally. 'It's one thing one day, and it changes the next day.' What doesn't change is the need. Right now, about 15% of West Virginia's population — one in seven people — is struggling with hunger. Among the most-impacted are children and senior citizens. Last year, the network of food banks and feeding programs aligned with Mountaineer Food Bank distributed nearly 29 million pounds of food. 'And this year, it's definitely been marred with a lot of uncertainty,' Morrison said, noting the TFAP program was hit hard by a $1 billion reduction in federal support for feeding programs. It has historically provided about 35% of the food distributed by the Mountaineer Food Bank. 'We are trying to fill the gaps from some of those cutbacks, but, you know, the funding is just not there to fill those gaps completely,' Morrison said. In the short term, pantries and nonprofit feeding programs need their communities to rally behind them, he emphasized. 'They need that additional support because they're working hard to try to fill that need, and the more volatile it is, the harder it is to plan and adjust. But we also have to be timely in filling those gaps because people are hungry and hunger doesn't wait,' he said. 'We can spend a lot of time trying to forecast and predict what will happen, but at the end of the day, we must figure out ways to put food on the plates of our neighbors.' In the long term, Morrison said, people in West Virginia and across the country dealing with food insecurity need advocates. 'As Congress is looking at federal nutrition programs for things to get stronger or things to get weaker, it's really important that we have a strong federal nutrition program because that's what funds programs like SNAP. A lot of people don't know, but for every meal a food bank or food pantry provides, SNAP provides 10. It's tremendously important for food security,' he said. 'We have to figure out a way forward, whether that's through the community-based organizations or through state resources or federal resources, or, most likely all of the above. We've got to find a way forward … Because one setback — a doctor bill, a car breakdown, your heat pump goes bad — one little thing like that can set a family back years. It's hard for those families. We see it in our pantries. There are a lot of people struggling, right on the edge.'
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Mountaineer Food Bank director: Community the antidote to volatility
Apr. 26—MORGANTOWN — Statewide, 600 households with senior citizens—including 300 in the Mountaineer Food Bank coverage area—are no longer eligible for the state's Senior Food Box Program. In the 48 counties covered by the Mountaineer Food Bank, $1.7 million used to purchase fresh food from local farmers has been lost. In recent months, the truckloads of food distributed by Mountaineer Food Bank to local pantries and feeding initiatives through the federal Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program, or TFAP, have been cut by 15 % to 30 %. "It's just very volatile right now, " Mountaineer Food Bank Executive Director Chad Morrison said when asked how recent federal spending cuts are being felt locally. "It's one thing one day, and it changes the next day." What doesn't change is the need. Right now, about 15 % of West Virginia's population—one in seven people—is struggling with hunger. Among the most-impacted are children and senior citizens. Last year, the network of food banks and feeding programs aligned with Mountaineer Food Bank distributed nearly 29 million pounds of food. "And this year, it's definitely been marred with a lot of uncertainty, " Morrison said, noting the TFAP program was hit hard by a $1 billion reduction in federal support for feeding programs. It has historically provided about 35 % of the food distributed by the Mountaineer Food Bank. "We are trying to fill the gaps from some of those cutbacks, but, you know, the funding is just not there to fill those gaps completely, " Morrison said. In the short term, pantries and nonprofit feeding programs need their communities to rally behind them, he emphasized. "They need that additional support because they're working hard to try to fill that need, and the more volatile it is, the harder it is to plan and adjust. But we also have to be timely in filling those gaps because people are hungry and hunger doesn't wait, " he said. "We can spend a lot of time trying to forecast and predict what will happen, but at the end of the day, we must figure out ways to put food on the plates of our neighbors." In the long term, Morrison said, people in West Virginia and across the country dealing with food insecurity need advocates. "As Congress is looking at federal nutrition programs for things to get stronger or things to get weaker, it's really important that we have a strong federal nutrition program because that's what funds programs like SNAP. A lot of people don't know, but for every meal a food bank or food pantry provides, SNAP provides 10. It's tremendously important for food security, " he said. "We have to figure out a way forward, whether that's through the community-based organizations or through state resources or federal resources, or, most likely all of the above. We've got to find a way forward ... Because one setback—a doctor bill, a car breakdown, your heat pump goes bad—one little thing like that can set a family back years. It's hard for those families. We see it in our pantries. There are a lot of people struggling, right on the edge."
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why The U.S. Government Has Been Stockpiling Cheese For Nearly 100 Years
The United States has hoarded billions of pounds of cheese for several decades. The original idea after World War II was to subsidize the American farmer and ensure food was always available. At the time, the price of dairy products fluctuated so wildly that the milk and cheese supply became unpredictable. President Harry Truman stepped in with the 1949 Dairy Product Price Support Program, essentially buying and holding dairy products until the market conditions were right to resell. Then, the economic crisis in the 1970s caused inflation to jump from 5.5% to 14%. President Jimmy Carter promised farmers he would help, which meant buying dairy products in record numbers. The government converted the raw dairy into powdered milk, cheese, and butter and put them into cold storage. By the 1980s, however, the government had more cheese than they could sell and the cheese had sat so long that it was molding. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan's solution was the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program to give the excess cheese (along with butter, peanut butter, and other overstock) to Americans at risk of food insecurity. However, the program distributed only 30 million pounds of the 560 million pounds of surplus cheese. In 2016 and again in 2020, the USDA started distributing stockpiled cheese and dairy products through food banks and other agencies that help the unhoused and people experiencing food insecurity. The stockpile will continue to be an option when the country needs it. Read more: 6 Canned Meats You Should Be Eating And 6 To Avoid Contrary to the rumors, not all cheese stockpiled by the government (specifically the USDA) is publicly owned, and there's more to it than milk and cheese. As of September 2024, the U.S. cold storage includes frozen fruit, fruit juice, poultry, eggs, beef, and potatoes. These food stockpiles were rumored to be in underground caves in Missouri. In reality, stockpiled government cheese and other foods are stored all over the U.S. The government has tried some creative ways to get rid of all that cheese, but the stockpile has continued to grow as dairy consumption has dropped. President Bill Clinton tried to alleviate the cheese hoard through Dairy Management Inc. It's a marketing and strategy agency within the USDA that had a $140 million budget to use in figuring out how to get rid of the surplus of cheese. The agency funneled money to ad campaigns like "Got Milk?" and to fast food companies for new cheesier and dairy-based food options. This was the origin of Pizza Hut's stuff crust pizzas, Taco Bell's whipped freezes, and other dairy-based options found on Wendy's, McDonald's, and Burger King's menus. None of these efforts have succeeded in reducing the cheese stockpile, however. For more food and drink goodness, join The Takeout's newsletter. Get taste tests, food & drink news, deals from your favorite chains, recipes, cooking tips, and more! Read the original article on The Takeout.
