LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) – The Second Harvest Food Bank of Southwest Louisiana says it is struggling from the Trump Administration’s cuts to the USDA.
The food bank distributes to about 30 partners each month, including churches and pantries.
The federal government cut USDA funding by $1 billion in March.
It was a major blow to Second Harvest according to David Smith, development officer here in Lake Charles.
“We just received 40 percent of our USDA. The food that we had last year, 40 percent of that food was from USDA and we’re experiencing cuts on that 40 percent,” said Smith.
He says it’s making it more challenging for the center to keep up with the demand for food.
“That means we’re unable to provide as much food to our partnered pantries as we have in the past, which means they aren’t able to provide as much food to our neighbors facing hunger in the community,” said Smith.
One of their partners is Catholic Charities of Southwest Louisiana, who tell 7News they also have been impacted.
Despite the cuts, Smith says they are still committed to supplying their programs.
“We’re at McNeese, we’re still fixing food, plating food, getting it out to our summer feeding program, we’re still housing a program called TSFP, so we’re getting food out to our seniors,” said Smith.
He says they are open to doing more food drives with community members as a way to bring in inventory to fill in the gap.
If you’d like to volunteer or donate to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Southwest Louisiana, you can visit their website at no-hunger.org.
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