TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – New federal cuts from the US Department of Agriculture could put one million people at risk to feed Tampa Bay families.
The agency announced it had cut funding for two federal programs, the School Nutrition Association and the Local Food Purchase Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA).
The LFPA helps food banks buy food from local farmers.
Thomas Manz, president and CEO of Tampa Bay Feeding, said he plans to distribute around 100 million meals this year, but that number could fall.
“Of these 100 million meals, roughly 20 million of these meals come through our partnership with the federal government that we distribute food for them,” Manz said. “These cuts do not affect our funds and will affect food for our communities.”
The LFPA was planning to distribute about $500 million this year to support the food bank.
Manz said he would lose about 4 million meals without one of his LFPA partners.
“The size and range of potential losses here is not something that we could easily or likely to be. It’s a really hard cap for us to meet. And we will do whatever we can to step into that challenge, but it’s unlikely to make up for that big loss,” Manz said.
According to the USDA website, the Florida LFPA has been awarded more than $24 million to go to 148 unique producers and 131 unserved producers.
Ernesto Lewis of the Florida Farmers Association said these cuts cause ripple effects.
“If they don’t have access to this capital, or if they don’t have access to these programs to sell produce, then farmers will struggle. That affects the farm workers themselves with fewer jobs and lower wages,” Lewis said.
Lewis said there is a risk of stress on the population that raises food anxiety and feeds the country.
“We want this population and we need to make this population resilient. This will allow the rest of the population to have safety in the food system. That’s not what we do,” Lewis said.
