USDA cuts programs impacting local produce supply to schools & food banks

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WPDE) — A move by the USDA means local schools and food banks have lost the funding they used to buy locally grown fresh produce.

The program being cut is the Local Farm Produce Assistance or LFPA.

The LFPA program helped food banks and schools get federal money to cover costs to buy local produce that would then be available as a healthy food option.

The Lowcountry Food Bank in Myrtle Beach distributes food to people with food insecurities in 10 counties.

Regional Food Center Director at the Lowcountry Food Bank, Heather Singleton, said the need in our area is big and is growing.

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“Horry County in particular is the highest need in all the 10 counties that we serve. There are approximately 49,000 food insecure people in Horry County,” Singleton explained.

With the Trump Administration cutting one billion dollars from USDA’s budget, the funding for programs that provided locally grown produce to food banks has been cut.

“USDA food we do not pay for. That could be up to 30 million dollars that we will have to come up with to fray those costs. Also with federal funding that costs 16 percent of our budget, which is three million dollars, we will have to come up with to make up those differences,” Director of Fundraising at Lowcountry Food Bank, Beth Atkinson, said.

Singleton said thankfully the cut won’t impact them immediately because they have enough funding from other sources to continue to buy fresh produce, but said she understands other food banks may not have that.

“The long-term impact to farmers and people in need. They will definitely be impacted. The farmers, the economy with the farmers and then people who were in need of food that we were able to provide with that funding,” Singleton said.