A $1 billion cut in assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture is impacting food help organizations in Delaware County, writes Madeleine Wright for CBS News Philadelphia.
Gone is $420 million that went to a Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement that helped food banks, and $60 million to Local Food for Schools, a program that feeds hungry school children.
The cuts have hit Murphy’s Giving Market, a food pantry in Upper Darby serving about 3,000 people a month.
“I’m extremely worried because a lot of our funding comes from the federal government by way of food banks,” said pantry founder Desiree Murphy-Morrissey. “If they’re cut and we already don’t have food right now to feed people, how much less will we have then?”
Murphy’s Giving Market receives 25 percent of its food from Philabundance, which has seen an 85 percent cut in food deliveries under the Emergency Food Assistance Program.
Murphy-Morrissey said tariffs are also affecting her costs, since a lot of her pantry’s produce comes from Canada and Mexico
Congress is also looking at cuts to programs used by food pantry clients, like Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Find out more about federal funding cuts to food pantries at CBS News Philadelphia.
