Tri-State Food Bank facing another federal funding challenge

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) – One problem is resolved and another one is presented.

That’s been life for the Tri-State Food Bank over the past few months, with so many federal funding changes happening.

“These turbulent times continue,” said Glenn Roberts, the executive director of the Tri-State Food Bank.

President Donald Trump has made government spending a priority over his first 100 days, cutting and reorganizing money on the federal level.

Organizations locally have been feeling those effect, perhaps none more than the Tri-State Food Bank.

“It’s rather frightening to live one day to the next and wonder, ‘Is this news really that bad?‘” Roberts said. “It could be. Then we learn later on it’s been ameliorated some how.”

Their topsy-turvy year hit another speed bump earlier this month, when they learned they would lose USDA funding for the local food purchasing assistance programs.

At first, it looked like the food bank would be out 10s of thousands of dollars, but now that issue has been resolved, with the USDA funding the program through June.

But as one problem goes away, another one emerges.

“We rely on this program to provide about 20-25% of our food on a yearly basis,” Roberts says.

The program he’s referring to is The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), and the USDA has now paused half the funding, about $500 million. Roberts says that will have a big impact on the Tri-State Food Bank.

“The worst case scenario, is we would be out about 2 million pounds of food between now and June, and $74,000 which would have gone to help our administrative costs,” he said.

This is at least the third time the Tri-State Food Bank has been at risk of losing out on key funding over the past two months.

Roberts says it’s been hard to plan for their future, even in the short-term, with all these changes.

“It’s so uncertain now what’s going on because we learn news one day, and then like this other program, it will be reinstated,” Roberts said. “We just don’t know.”

Roberts says one thing that could help is a new Farm Bill. The deadline to pass one has been extended to the end of September.

Roberts encourages people that want to help food banks to contact their legislators and ask for a Farm Bill to be passed that supports nutrition programs that food banks rely on.

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