How this Milwaukee Food Bank Manages USDA Federal Cuts – ryan

For months, matt king kept an eye on federal food aid police. He Also stayed in Constant Contact with Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services, Which, Among Other Things, Manages Food Disburses from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). King is the Chief Executive Officer of Hunger Task ForceWhich Operates a Food Bank, A 280-Acre Farm, and Other Aid Programs in Milwaukee, providing nutriteious food to more than 50,000 People every month in wisconsin’s mast populous City.

In Particular, he was tracking available food distributions from the Emergency Food Assistance, OR Tefap. Tefap is a federal program that provides Food assistance to people with Low Incomes, Often by Supplementing Food Banks. An affable, soft-robous advocate for nutrition, king was planning on the tefap distributions to stockpile food supplies ino summer.

“Over the past year, we have experiencing a 35 percent increes in vits to local food pantries.”

Suddenly, in late March, Those Tefap distributions Were Canceled. There was no formal communication around the cancelled disbursements, amounting to $ 2.2 million in wisconsin, he says. They were just no longer available. HUNGER TASK FORCE LOST FIVE FULL TROCKLOADS OF FOOD, INCLUDING CANNED Chicken, Cheese, Milk, and Eggs, Along With Other Deliveries of Turkey Breast, Chicken Legs, Pulled Pork, and Pork Chops. More than 300,000 Pounds of Food, Worth $ 615,000, Was Gone. Nationwide, A Total $ 500 Million Allocated for Tefap Had Been Cut, Leaving Mory Food Banks scrambling.

It was the Second Blow in March to the Nation’s Food Safety Net, as the Trump Administration Continue Sweeping Cuts to Federal Programs and Funding. HUNGER TASK FORCE AND OTHER FOOD BANKS WERE ALREADY COPING WITH THE LOSS OF $ 500 MILLION FROM The USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation. Break CCC Oversees The Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (Lfpa), which provided the funds that allowed king to pure -free Food, especially produce, from local farmers.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has said that the USDA is cutting finking allocated during the biden administration that is excesses or unnecessary. In an april 3 letter To Senator Amy Klobucher (D-Minnesota), The Ranking Member of the Senate’s Committee on Agriculture, Rollins Said The Biden HAD “Inflation Statutory with Commodity Credit Corporation Dollars with Long-Term Solutions, and the Invest. Reason to make ending announkments. ”

Matt King, CEO of Hunger Task Force, on a 208-Acre Hunger Task Force Farm in Franklin, Wisconsin, Which Offers a Unique Source of Fresh Produce for the Community. (Photo Courtesy of Hunger Task Force)

up during trips To pennsylvania and arkansas last week, rollins said that states currently have more than enough ending for programs like tefap and that the cancelled funds extra distributions desired have with the pandemic. “The Money is there,” She Said, and Going Forward the Programs Will Be “More Effective, More Meaningal.”

In Fact, Food Banks Are Facing Major shortfalls From USDA cuts, with a combined loss of $ 1 billion from cuts to lfpa and tefap.

Far from Washington, DC, King’s Hunger Task Force, Along With Food Banks Across the Country, Faces Drafts to Programs and Funding, Cost of LivingIncluding Food, Continue to Climen.

CIVIL EATS RECENTLY SPOKE WITH KING TO LEARN THE EXtent of the Cuts – how HIS HIS ORGANIZATION TO MOVE FORWARD.

How Will You Close the Gap in Food Deliveries Created by the Cuts in Federal Funding?

Its been a challenge, and especally gioven the short notice. One of the real problematic aspects of the cut to the LFPA program, specific, was that there is there to be much of a consideration for the impact on the small businesses and the impact on the farmers who were operating under the pretensation of the program was continuing for the upComing grows.

HUNGER TASK FORCE LOST FIVE FULL TROCKLOADS OF FOOD, INCLUDING CANNED Chicken, Cheese, Milk, and Eggs.

Many of the Had Already Gone Out and Purchased the Supplies and Essentially made Financial Commitments, Only to Have the Rug of Pulled Out from Underneath. Many of the Had Already Planted Their Seeds and Had Started Their Seedlings for the UpComing Growing Season. SO, FOR US, IT WAS TALKING TO SOOM OF OUR TRUSTED, LONG-TIME DONORS AND EXPLAINING The situation.