Stacks of boxes, each containing nonperishable food items, are piled high in the small storeroom at Martinsville’s Uptown Ministries. Pastor Faith Weedling, along with a handful of others in her ministry, prepare between 140 and 210 boxes of assorted groceries that guests take home every third Saturday.
Despite the stacks of food-filled boxes, Weedling and others worry that these might be their last days of maintaining a storeroom-filling surplus. She isn’t alone.
As the U.S. Department of Agriculture grapples with possible decreases in funding, Uptown Ministries, which gets half of its food supply from the USDA, and other local food pantries that rely on the federal agency are bracing for the worst, according to Pamela Irvine, president and CEO of Feeding Southwest Virginia.
The Salem-based organization distributes food to around 360 pantries and nonprofit feeding programs throughout the region.
Irvine said that while the reduction in USDA funding will trickle down to a wide range of local agencies, communities like the ones Feeding Southwest Virginia serves will be particularly impacted. She said the nonprofit’s service region has historically depended on a handful of industries such as textiles, furniture and tobacco.
In March, the USDA was subject to a freeze of around $1 billion as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to cut government spending.
Food banks throughout Virginia and the country have been affected, and lawmakers have taken notice. Most recently, in an open letter to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, some members of Virginia’s congressional delegation — including Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem — expressed concern about the impact that rolling back food bank support would have.
“More than 400 local pantries, including many faith-based partners from Hampton Roads to Southwest Virginia, distribute the food to eligible low-income recipients who typically do not qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and have few alternatives to turn to for help,” reads the open letter. “In Virginia, approximately 10 percent of households are ‘food insecure,’ meaning their access to adequate food is limited by a lack of money and other resources. On average, food pantry visits increased more than 20 percent in Virginia last year and Virginia food banks are spending five times more money now than in 2019 due to greater demand and higher food prices.”
Regional impact
The USDA works with organizations like Feeding Southwest Virginia to bridge the gap between the federal agency and the local food pantries that serve communities. The USDA and Feeding Southwest Virginia have worked together since the early 1990s.
“It has been an extremely important partnership,” Irvine said, adding that the USDA is useful for pantries that don’t have access to local food sources. “We don’t have many food manufacturers in Southwest Virginia, therefore I had to look for additional resources to be able to provide enough food to feed individuals in that 26-county area.”
USDA accounts for around 31% of Feeding Southwest Virginia’s food supply. Irvine said this translates to $513,000 worth of food that her agency receives from the USDA every quarter.
In a worst-case scenario, one in which the USDA is no longer able to contribute, Irvine’s agency would have to fundraise that amount and find vendors to fill in the gap. Even if successful, it wouldn’t completely supplement the USDA’s contribution. Irvine said a dollar spent at a non-USDA source wouldn’t return as much product compared to what the USDA gives to its regional partners.
Their most recent food order for the upcoming quarter has been put on pause. Irvine said she doesn’t know what this pause might entail over the coming weeks.
She said that while the situation is concerning, it isn’t unprecedented. She said that there have been instances in the past that threatened her agency’s supply of food. Economic hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic reduced donations, another important source for the agency’s food supply.
Local impact
Uptown Ministries Center Food Bank operates in Martinsville and serves between 140 and 210 households every month. A portion of its food supply comes from the USDA by way of Feeding Southwest Virginia.
Linda Adams, a volunteer, said she is afraid that what is going on at the federal level will trickle down to Martinsville.
“I feel like if they cut back on the USDA’s budget it will affect all food banks, probably,” Adams said. “I hope that doesn’t happen, but we don’t have anything to keep it from happening.”
Adams said that the USDA gives her organization an assortment of essentials, from meat to vegetables. What the food pantry doesn’t get from the USDA, it supplements with donations and food purchased with grant funding.
Adams said that while donations may vary from organization to organization, the USDA is a reliable source.
“I don’t want to say that they give us all our food, because they definitely don’t,” Adams said.
While pantries continue to monitor the situation at USDA, organizations like the Grace Network show that this kind of community work is possible without USDA assistance.
The faith-based Grace Network has served Martinsville and Henry County for about 19 years, said director Tracy Hinchcliff. Grace Network is supported by a network of churches throughout the community and serves about 1,400 households annually.
“When we started Grace Network, it was a startup from the faith community, churches from across the community and now we are supported by over 100 churches,” Hinchcliff said. The pantry doesn’t accept any government grants or funds from the government, she said.
On March 22, the Harvest Foundation held a community conversation at Grace Presbyterian Church in Martinsville to talk about food insecurity. Organizers titled the event “Healthy Futures: A Community Conversation on Food Access.”
Last year’s closure of a Family Dollar that served this part of the city prompted the conversation. Participants discussed ways to combat food insecurity and what impact it has had in their own neighborhoods.
“All organizations aren’t able to provide for everyone in need,” said Jean Hairston, a member of Grace Presbyterian who participated in the event. “If you don’t have a car or if you can’t get on the bus, you have to find a ride or you’re in trouble. From Fayette Street to [U.S.] 220, there are only two stores that residents can go to if they have transportation — Walmart and Kroger. This doesn’t mean that we don’t need the support organizations because we do, it means that [they alone] will not solve the food desert issue.”
Solutions event participants suggested included year-round farmers’ markets and community gardens.
As local pantries monitor the funding situation, they hope the USDA will continue to be a factor in their efforts to combat food insecurity in their respective communities.
“We’re hoping as they evaluate … they see the value of this program that helps our neighbors,” Irvine said.
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