FeedMore WNY says the recently announced cuts to a federal food bank program will mean “significant loss” for the region — more than 2.1 million pounds of food.
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it is cutting $500 million from a federal program aimed at allowing providing food to low-income households.
FeedMore WNY says the cuts will equate to roughly 2.1 million less pounds of food than it was able to purchase in 2024, which represents 13% of the food it distributed in 2024.
In 2024, Feedmore distributed 15.8M pounds of food.
“These items that were coming to us through those for food purchases were high value items such as proteins like chicken, turkey, pork, eggs, dairy products as well as produce,” Catherine Shick, the public relations manager for FeedMore WNY, told 2 On Your Side.
“So this is a significant loss for feed more western New York in terms of these funding cuts.”
The program is part of The Emergency Food Assistance Program, also know as TEFAP. It’s also part of the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), a government owner corporation designed to assist the agriculture industry.
FeedMore WNY, and similar food banks across the country, place orders through the CCC for the TEFAP program and distribute the food to low-income households to administer the program.
The impact of the cuts will be felt within a month, according to Shick.
“These are actual real cuts that will be felt by FeedMore,” Shick said. “We know that we placed orders for about 12 separate orders of the food purchases through CCC to be coming to FeedMore Western New York between May and August. We have learned that those orders will not be fulfilled.”
FeedMore WNY learned about the canceled orders over the weekend.
“So those were truckloads of food items — such as those turkey, pork, chicken, high-value animal proteins — that will not be coming to feed more Western New York,” Shick said.
The cuts are coming at a time where demand for the services provided by Feedmore WNY are increasing, according to the organization.
“Last year, we saw a 16% increase in the number of people relying on Feedmore WNY for nutritious food and support,” Shick said. “Since 2021 we have actually seen a spike of about 46% in terms of the number of people turning to us for food assistance.”
NY Senator Kirsten Gillibrand blasted the cuts during a press conference on Wednesday.
“It’s coming from DOGE, most of these cuts is Elon Musk, who obviously doesn’t care about hungry people,” Senator Gillibrand said.
Gillibrand believes that funding for programs like food banks shouldn’t be political and believes urban and rural communities will be impacted.
“Cuts to these food programs are going to affect New Yorkers deeply, and I think voters will be very angry about it,” Gillibrand said. “I think this is a kind of change that they did not vote for, that they did not want, and I think these changes are harming a lot of families who work really hard every day and just want to feed their hungry kids.
The USDA is also cutting programs that could impact school lunches for districts around the country, approximately $600M from the Local Food for School program.
A spokesperson for the Buffalo Public School system tells 2 On Your Side that they are monitoring the situation.
WGRZ reached out to Congressman Nick Langworthy for a comment about the cuts. He has been a supporter of Feedmore since he took office, and even allocated additional funding for the organization in 2024.
He was not available for an interview Wednesday, and his office said they were gathering more information about the cuts.
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