Some D.C.-area food banks are in a bind as President Donald Trump’s administration has made major cuts to programs providing them federal aid, while demand for food banks has simultaneously soared.
At a food bank and pantry in McLean, Virginia, Food for Others Executive Director Deb Haynes told WTOP they’re feeling the effects of cuts made in March as inflation drives up the cost of replacing the canceled supply deliveries.
“We are expecting to probably have to feed more people with less food or with more expensive food,” Haynes said.
In March, the Trump administration cut $1 billion from federal programs aimed at getting American-grown food to people who are having trouble affording groceries.
Haynes said they’re still crunching the numbers on how supplies will be impacted by $500 million in cuts to the Department of Agriculture’s Emergency Food Assistance Program.
“It’s possibly going to cut how much of that food we receive by 50% to 100%. We don’t have hard numbers yet,” Haynes said. “We don’t know if the cuts are going to be spread out evenly over the country.”
Through that program, which is sometimes abbreviated as TEFAP, the USDA buys nutritious food and gets it into the hands of state’s distributing agencies.
“We are bracing for impact here,” Haynes said. “About 20% of the food that we distribute is through that program. We feed, at peak, about 4,500 families in a month with that food.”
Haynes said she estimates they’ll need about $1.5 million to replace the food from TEFAP.
In the case of the D.C. area, food from TEFAP is distributed by the Capital Area Food Bank. That organization was expecting to get food from 55 tractor-trailers from April through June.
Back in March, Capital Area Food Bank President and CEO Radha Muthiah said the organization found out it would only receive half those supplies.
Another $500 million was cut from the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement. Through that initiative, states were provided funding to buy crops grown by U.S. farmers and processed in the country. It was distributed to organizations such as the Capital Area Food Bank at no cost, and given out to people in need.
That program is not being renewed.
“We can no longer count on funding from USDA that we would use to purchase hundreds and thousands of pounds of good, nutritious food from local area farmers for our community members in need,” Muthiah said.
Food banks are also keeping an eye on the Farm Bill — legislation that’s being debated in Congress that would fund food benefits for low-income families. Haynes said there’s concern cuts could be made to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP.
“The more SNAP is cut, the less buying power families have to bring home groceries for their children and themselves,” Haynes said. “And if those school meals (get) cut, that’s a radical impact on children’s nutrition.”
Countering the loss in supplies
With hopes of countering the loss in funding, Haynes said Food for Others is boosting its food drives and looking to expand its program where it buys food that would otherwise go to waste at area grocery stores.
“We’re also looking at running different scenarios of where can we purchase food, how much it would cost, talking to our vendors, trying to get some estimates and be prepared, so that if we get hit with a big wave of need, that we’re prepared to bring in the food to meet it,” Haynes said.
The Capital Area Food Bank is working to make up for some of the lost meals for its local partners such as Food for Others.
“What we’re doing is pivoting to the other two sources of food that we rely on, and that’s donated food from area retailers, wholesalers, food drives, as well as purchased food,” Muthiah said.
Muthiah said it can be difficult to get more donated food quickly.
“We are having to purchase more food than we thought we might have to do at this stage of our year, and that we can only do with the generosity of our community to be able to help us,” she said.
The strain on supplies comes as several factors put pressure on food banks. Energy prices have made it costly to transport food, and should tariffs go into place, premiums on aluminum could make canned goods more expensive.
“Our dry goods vendors started raising prices even before the tariffs went into place,” Haynes said.
Inflation is making it more expensive to buy the food itself, which has driven more people to reach out for support. Haynes said Food for Others’ emergency referral program is up 25% compared to this time in 2024.
“We’re watching that very closely, and we’re shifting some of the incoming food to make sure that we’re meeting the need in that program, because those are families in crisis that do not have food,” Haynes said.
In the case of Food For Others, high grocery prices could be behind its dip in donations and spike in visitors.
Tens of thousands of federal workers have lost their employment, and as they run through their savings, local food banks expect to see a surge in visitors. Those layoffs have ripple effects — for example, people who work in the service industry may lose gigs as former federal workers cut back on paying for services like getting their homes cleaned.
“It’s an interesting perfect storm that’s developing with a reduction in supply, at the very same time, when we’re seeing more people in need of help from us,” Muthiah said.
“We met the challenge of COVID, and we will meet this challenge as well,” Haynes said. “That is in large part because everybody understands that everyone needs healthy food, and so we’re confident that we can meet the need and that our community will rally around us and help us do that.”
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