Jonesboro, AR — (JonesboroRightNow.com) — April 10, 2025 — The Food Bank of Northeast Arkansas is facing the abrupt cancellation of government funding for programs that help food banks distribute healthy, local food.
These cuts come after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in March that it was cutting more than $1 billion in funding for programs for 2025, according to POLITICO.
Food Bank of NEA executive director Christie Jordan said Northeast Arkansas was losing a few different resources due to recent federal funding cuts.
She said the Local Food Purchase Agreement Grants used by food banks across the country have been cut. The Food Bank of NEA will be able to finish out its fiscal year with that funding, which ends June 30.
“After that, the food bank will not be receiving more LFPA [Local Food Purchase Assistance] funds. We lost approximately $500,000 in funding for the next physical school year that we were using specifically with local farmers, growers and ranchers to purchase local protein and fresh produce,” Jordan said.
Additionally, the Local Food Purchase Agreement and some foods for charitable food distribution were being funded through the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) through USDA and they have stopped all spending through the CCC as of now, she continued.
“In addition to the Local Food Purchase Agreement Grant, we also know that commodity foods [USDA foods] that we were scheduled to get in the coming months have been canceled, that were being funded through the Commodity Credit Corporation,” Jordan said. “The Food Bank of Northeast Arkansas will lose around five to seven truckloads of food because of those cuts and that’s in addition to what we would’ve purchased locally through farmers, growers and ranchers in the area.”
Jordan said they conservatively project a loss of around 400,000 meals in NEA in the coming months. She also noted that the Food Bank of NEA was administering a grant statewide for a school pantry program.
“We had 54 sites across the state of Arkansas, and it was funded by TANF, which is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and that grant has also been pulled. It ended in the spring of this year, and so that grant has not been renewed for the coming school year,” she said.
The Food Bank of NEA works with local schools and provides them with donated food. Jordan said that will continue until the end of the school year, and then the food bank will reevaluate how it wants to move forward into the new school year.
Their regular food pantry programs will continue regardless of these cuts, she said. However, it will impact the types of food that they distribute as well as the variety of food and sometimes the quantity of food that they are able to provide to their partner agencies and programs.
“Specifically for the school pantry program, it was always optional whether or not those sites operated during the summer,” Jordan said. “We have communicated with the school about the availability of summer EBT for school students and are encouraging them to have students that qualify for those programs to sign up so that they receive additional EBT benefits so that they can purchase food for their families during the summer and then we are also making sure that our list of food pantries in Northeast Arkansas is kept up-to-date so that families can look for resources that they may need during the summer.”
Jordan said the food bank wasn’t given much notice before the funding cuts began.
“We did not receive a lot of notice about the ending of that program. In fact, they had already started soliciting proposals for the upcoming year, so we were very disheartened that it was ended with such short notice. The same with the CCC food purchases, those disappeared overnight. Literally, there was no notice that those were going to be canceled,” she said. [Jordan was referring to the $1.13 Billion for Local Food Programs that the USDA had announced in a press release from Dec. 10, 2024.]
As for the school pantry funding, Jordan said they were given a six-month notice that the funding would not renew, so they have been working to try to bridge that gap through the end of the school year. Going forward, she said they will continue to distribute food to families facing hunger in NEA with the help of their donors and fundraisers.
“We’re really fortunate that, while these cuts are devastating, we also have a very broad base of support and so we will continue to serve family facing hunger in Northeast Arkansas. But we do need our donors and new donors to step up, so whether you want to donate monetarily or bring food to the food bank, either way is great.”
According to Jordan, for every dollar contributed the food bank can provide approximately three meals because they are able to look at volume purchasing and donations from all across United States that they could possibly get with a little bit of transportation.
“So, we can make your dollar go very far,” she said. “People can give to us with confidence,” she said. “Ninety-six cents of every dollar contributed to the food bank goes directly to programs and services that we provide to people facing hunger throughout Northeast Arkansas.”
To contribute, go the Food Bank of NEA website and click the donation button on the homepage. Additionally, Jordan said that if someone is in need of food assistance, there is a food finder on their website as well that can help people to resources in their communities.
According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) spokesperson, the department began awarding funds to states, tribes and territories under these cooperative agreements in 2022. Some completed their performance periods in 2024 or earlier, while the majority have performance periods that end in 2025.
Cooperators can request a no-cost extension of their period of performance. Some LFS performance periods can be extended to June 2026 and some LFPA performance periods can be extended until December 2026. Once these periods end, the programs will sunset.
“Unlike the Biden Administration, which funneled billions in CCC funds into short-term programs with no plan for longevity, USDA is prioritizing stable, proven solutions that deliver lasting impact,” the spokesperson said. “The COVID era is over — USDA’s approach to nutrition programs will reflect that reality moving forward.”
In a press release from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) on March 11, the NSAC lamented the termination of previously announced funding for the Local Food for Schools and Child Care Cooperative Agreement (LFSCC) and LFPA Cooperative Agreement program, which the USDA announced March 7.
In the news release, NSAC policy specialist Hannah Quigley said the decision to terminate the latest round of LFPA and LFSCC funding will have “profoundly harmful economic impacts nationwide.”
“Farmers and businesses have invested their own resources to scale operations to respond to local need and meet demand,” Quigley said. “This decision comes at a time where many have already planted for the upcoming season and may leave a substantial market gap for producers.”
Many U.S. Congressmen and women were opposed to the cuts, writing a letter to the Secretary of United States Department of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on March 14. In this letter they expressed their “deep dismay and concern” regarding the USDA’s decision to terminate LFPA Cooperative Agreements for 2025 and the Local Food for Schools (LFS) Cooperative Agreement Program across the country.
“This decision will impact farmers across the country and strip food away from people, including children, who need it,” the letter read. “The LFPA program provided funding across the country to purchase locally and regionally sourced foods to maintain and improve agricultural supply chain resiliency.”
This letter was signed by 82 U.S. Democratic Congressmen from 31 states, the District of Columbia (D.C.) and the Virgin Islands.
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