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- The Bucks County Opportunity Council will lose more than $260,000 in annual funding used to purchase food from local farmers and vendors.
- The USDA’s Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, designed to support local farmers and improve food supply chain resiliency, is being cut.
- Food insecurity is rising in Bucks County, with a recent report indicating a significant increase in the percentage of food-insecure families between 2021 and 2022.
Plans to cut $1 billion in federal spending could hit tens of thousands of Bucks County residents struggling with food insecurity every year.
States received word earlier this month that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is cutting funds for two cooperative agreements aimed at helping schools and local food banks purchase locally grown food from farmers.
One agreement, the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, has been used by the Bucks County Opportunity Council to purchase $800,000 in food over the last three years for its network of 75 food pantries and Fresh Connect farmers markets in Bristol Township, Nockamixon, Quakertown and Warminster.
“What it does for us is it allows us to purchase fresh food — nutritious food — from local farmers and other food vendors so that we can provide healthier options for people in the community,” Erin Lukoss, the council’s executive director, said Wednesday. “Without it, we’ll have to cut back.”
Lukoss said the funding bought approximately 400,000 pounds of food in 2024, which equates to about 510,000 meals.
The cuts are the latest in a long list of spending programs and jobs to be slashed from the federal government, cuts touted by President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency spearheaded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Lukoss said it’s too early to know what the end of the program will mean for BCOC, Bucks County’s leading anti-poverty nonprofit, and the estimated 56,570 Bucks County residents who live with food insecurity.
“There’s not really a way to make $260,000 a year without some serious intention of how we fundraise around that,” Lukoss said. “I don’t know if there’s a way for us to really make that up.”
Lukoss added that the cuts are a two-fold loss in the area, both for the people who need access to affordable meals and for the farmers and vendors that the council and other groups purchase from.
What is the federal food bank program?
The cooperative agreement program provides federal dollars to state, tribal and territorial governments to purchase food from vendors such as farms within 400 miles of the food’s destination, according to the USDA’s website.
Authorized through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the goal was to “improve food and and agricultural supply chain resiliency” by distributing nutritious and locally sourced food through food banks and pantries.
As of the end of 2024, food bought with those funds went to more than 7,900 food banks, food pantries and communities in the U.S., the agency has said.
Food insecurity in Bucks County
The cuts come at a time when food insecurity is on the rise in Bucks County.
Some area food pantries have seen participation increase significantly in the past few years as inflation has put the cost of groceries out of reach for some.
A recent report from the nonprofit Children First PA estimated that the percentage of food-insecure families in Bucks County rose from 5% to 9% between 2021 and 2022, the first increase of its kind since 2017.
That report also found that, despite most working adults in the county earning more over the past decade, inflation has wiped out the purchasing power gained in the past 10 years for many.
Lukoss said Wednesday that wages are not keeping up with the cost of living, “driving up the volume” of people in need.
“I think that the volume keeps going up because the cost of living keeps going up,” Lukoss said. “The cost of housing has just skyrocketed and income hasn’t kept pace with housing … where do you find money in your budget?
“A lot of times, it’s the food budget.”
Chris Ullery is the data reporter for the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer at PhillyBurbs.com and can be reached at [email protected]. Please consider supporting local journalism with a subscription.
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