Some Deliveries to Regional Food Bank Cancelled
Uncertainty about a federal funding stream is causing the cancellations, which may or may not be permanent.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture has cancelled some of its expected food deliveries to the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank, and to food banks across the country.
Dan Maher, chief executive officer of the Fredericksburg Food Bank, said it isn’t clear yet whether the deliveries—which are funded by a portion of the USDA’s Emergency Food Assistance Program—have been permanently cancelled or simply posponed.
“It certainly does mean a delay at least, at least in food getting into the area, under that element [of the program],” Maher said this week.
This comes at a time when demand from the regional food bank and its partner agencies is “almost historically high,” Maher said.
“In this region, our concern is the impacts on former federal employees and contractors, knowing that’s going to be a bit of an increase in local demand,” he said.
The deliveries that are not coming to food banks right now are funded by $500 million from the USDA. This particular funding stream is supplemental and not guaranteed, Maher said, but has been reliable at least since the COVID-19 pandemic.
At one point, the spending on this part of the emergency food assistance program (known as TEFAP) was $1 billion, but it was trimmed to $500 million in the last fiscal year, which is “still pretty substantial based on historical [funding],” Maher said.
Feeding America, the national network of food banks and food pantries, is trying to determine whether there’s been a decision on the part of the Trump Administration not to fund this element of TEFAP or whether the program is paused for review, Maher said.
“But the immediate horizon is, food is not coming,” he said.
About one-third of the volume of food dispensed annually by the Fredericksburg area food bank comes from the federal government, Maher said.
“Depending on what Feeding America is able to determine and how long it takes to determine whether it’s a pause or cancelation, we probably would just have to do what we can to purchase product,” he said. “But we will never be able to replace the volume of product we get from the federal government.”
He continued, “Food banks don’t exist to buy food—we have to at times, but we really try to handle donated food product, and federal commodities and retail commodities are the two biggest sources of that.”
The Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank serves Fredericksburg City; Stafford, Spotsylvania, Caroline, and King George counties; and Locust Grove.
Maher said that during this uncertainty, the support of the community becomes even more important.
“The challenge is for our entire community to recognize that these special circumstances impact us in maybe a slightly unique way because of our proximity to Washington, D.C., and for our community to be mindful of those who have been affected,” he said.
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So much unnecessary suffering caused by the federal government is inhumane and inexcusable.