NORFOLK, Va. — The USDA is cutting funding to a program that supports local food banks, a move that is affecting their ability to provide food to families in need throughout the area.
The USDA has cut $300,000 in funding that the The Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia & the Eastern Shore relied on, which they say will impact thousands of meals each month.
“We're already running operation as lean as you can get it,” said Christopher Tan, the president and CEO of the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia & the Eastern Shore.
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“There aren’t a lot of frills left over, so any time you say it's going to be a $300,000 cut to your budget, regardless of the size of your budget, that's a tremendous amount of money.”
The funding was part of a program called the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, which the food bank used to source protein and produce from local farmers for about 8,500 meals a month.
In a statement, a USDA spokesperson said the cuts were a result of the program's status as a "pandemic-era program" that "no longer effectuate the goals of the agency."
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These cuts come at a time when discussions around federal spending continue, led by the Trump administration and Elon Musk.
“We don’t want waste, fraud, or abuse. No America does that, but the local food charity system is not the place to start,” said Tan.
Tan is concerned not only about the current cuts but also about potential future reductions. The Foodbank currently serves 1.6 million meals a month.
“The difficulty for us is the uncertainty of it all,” Tan said. However, he remains hopeful that the community will step up to help fill any gaps in food assistance.
“At the end of the day, food banks are neighbors helping neighbors because that's what neighbors do, and that's what our history tells us. Our history tells us that's what we'll continue to do,” he said.
