Federal funding cuts will cost Second Harvest Food bank millions of dollars in losses

Second Harvest Food Bank says nearly one million meals will be off the table for families in Central Florida because of federal funding cuts. The group says the U.S. Department of Agriculture has canceled all of its orders of fresh food for the year. “Roughly 25% of the food that we distribute comes from the government commodities program, and about half of that is being canceled, over the next year for us,” said Greg Higgerson, the chief development officer at Second Harvest Food Bank.In March, the food bank lost nearly 30 truckloads of food after President Donald Trump put a freeze on funding for the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) within the Department of Agriculture. The CCC funds various programs for domestic and international agriculture. That includes the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which is food that the government purchases from farmers.Higgerson said the cuts will now cost them $11 million in losses.”We’re going to try to have to figure out ways to replace those dozens of tractor-trailer loads of fresh food that’s purchased from farmers by probably purchasing that food,” said Higgerson. One of the group’s feeding partners, Jewish Family Services of Greater Orlando, is worried about the trickling effect. “It’s not just our food pantry,” said Philip Flynn III, president of JFS Orlando. “But our family stabilization program, our emergency assistance programs, are all just stopped. We’re about to roll into summer, and the kids are home, so there’s no school programs, and the food bill goes up, and we don’t have any of the answers, and I’m not so sure that anyone does.””We’re hoping for some additional help from the community; that’s usually what happens in times of crisis,” said Higgerson. To learn how you can donate to Second Harvest Food Bank, click here. To learn how you can donate to JFS Orlando, click here.