Officials in Pennsylvania are raising alarms as they say funding cuts threaten to exacerbate food insecurity across the state. Lt. Gov. Austin Davis and the state’s Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding met with farmers at the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank for a roundtable discussion Wednesday afternoon.Local food banks and farmers are bracing for the fallout from reduced federal support, particularly the termination of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “Local Food Purchasing Program,” which helped connect food banks with local farmers.“For our food bank, it’s a loss of $1.6 million in funding,” said Lisa Scales, president and CEO of the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. The organization is one of 14 food banks in Pennsylvania impacted by the cuts, which include a canceled $13 million contract with the state.The funding gap affects 190 farms statewide, reducing their ability to supply fresh produce to food banks. “Less farms means less food,” said Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding.In response, the Shapiro administration is actively appealing the USDA’s decision, but officials stress the state must prepare for continued challenges. Lt. Gov. Austin Davis urged federal collaboration, warning, “There is no world where the state government can just absorb the cuts that the federal government is talking about.”State Rep. Emily Kinkead echoed the urgent need for action in Harrisburg, noting, “We are seeing more food come out of our charitable food network now than during the height of the pandemic. This is something Pennsylvania can and should fix.”
Officials in Pennsylvania are raising alarms as they say funding cuts threaten to exacerbate food insecurity across the state.
Lt. Gov. Austin Davis and the state’s Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding met with farmers at the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank for a roundtable discussion Wednesday afternoon.
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Local food banks and farmers are bracing for the fallout from reduced federal support, particularly the termination of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “Local Food Purchasing Program,” which helped connect food banks with local farmers.
“For our food bank, it’s a loss of $1.6 million in funding,” said Lisa Scales, president and CEO of the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. The organization is one of 14 food banks in Pennsylvania impacted by the cuts, which include a canceled $13 million contract with the state.
The funding gap affects 190 farms statewide, reducing their ability to supply fresh produce to food banks.
“Less farms means less food,” said Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding.
In response, the Shapiro administration is actively appealing the USDA’s decision, but officials stress the state must prepare for continued challenges.
Lt. Gov. Austin Davis urged federal collaboration, warning, “There is no world where the state government can just absorb the cuts that the federal government is talking about.”
State Rep. Emily Kinkead echoed the urgent need for action in Harrisburg, noting, “We are seeing more food come out of our charitable food network now than during the height of the pandemic. This is something Pennsylvania can and should fix.”
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