Michigan food banks hit by Trump funding freeze to local farmers

• Food banks could run short on local food soon if federal funding remains frozen
• About $1.7 million in Michigan invoices have been held up so far as part of Trump’s cost-cutting efforts
• Agencies fear critical shortages if the freeze isn’t resolved soon of the program  that began in 2021

Flint Fresh Food Hub has a freezer full of beef, blueberries and asparagus from local farmers, and none of it is currently going to feed the hungry.

The federal funding stream that pays for locally-sourced meat and produce has ground to a halt, leaving nonprofits with shrinking supplies of food for the needy. Flint Fresh Food Hub, for example, normally makes shipments to about a dozen local food pantries, but can’t make the deliveries without assurances of being reimbursed. 

The nationwide program launched just four years ago, but quickly became relied upon both by food banks as a source of fresh food, and local farmers as a reliable customer of their goods.

“It’s a program that serves low-income people and provides a funding source for farmers — it seems like a program that would stick around,” said Brian Schorr, executive director of the Flint food agency. “But as each day goes by, it’s harder to retain optimism.”

Some pantries have already adjusted distribution, giving low-income families more canned goods and less meat instead of fresh food, Schorr said.

The administration of President Donald Trump has given no clarity about when funding might resume for the program or others administered through the US Department of Agriculture. The program has declined to pay invoices since he took office Jan. 20.

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The stoppage could become a crisis for Michigan’s more than 2,800 hunger relief agencies if it continues into the spring, when nonprofits like Flint Fresh Food Hub need to sign contracts with local farmers for produce, according to directors of several food agencies who spoke to Bridge. 

The Local Food Purchase Assistance program was launched in 2021 during the administration of former President Joe Biden and was part of an influx of money to states during the pandemic. The program is set to expire in 2025 if new funding isn’t approved by Congress.

It’s among a broad swath of programs that have been frozen or targeted for dissolution by the Trump administration, which is attempting to shrink the footprint of the federal government and save taxpayers money. 

And though food banks have multiple sources of funding and donations, federal funds have helped financially stabilize service agencies, Schorr said.

Michigan normally gets about $16 million per year, which is distributed to local organizations through the Michigan Department of Education. So far, the state has had $1.7 million in invoices declined, said Deane Kelleher, director of health and nutrition services for the education department.

About 500 Michigan farmers participate in the program.

Bob Wheaton, a state education department spokesperson, said that there has been little clarity from Washington about the freeze. 

“The USDA has verbally asked us to be patient and await the USDA secretary’s review of all grants,” Wheaton said. “The department has received very little information from the federal government, which is very disappointing, as these funds support our economy and the health and well-being of our Michigan citizens.”

The program was included on a list of federal programs identified by the Office of Management and Budget to be paused until the new administration examined them to ensure they do not “advance Marxist equity, transgenderism and Green New Deal social engineering policies,” according to the New York Times. Agencies were asked to consider “Does this program promote gender ideology?”

The USDA media office did not reply to a request for comment from Bridge.

The Food Bank Council of Michigan advised its members to “temporarily halt” purchases made as part of the federal program, saying they “may not be reimbursed.”

At Kalamazoo Loaves and Fishes, a food bank that serves as many as 800 people a day from across Kalamazoo County, the federal government covers about 3% of the organization’s budget and about 20% of the food it distributes. 

Typically, Loaves and Fishes takes in between eight and 12 shipments of groceries from the USDA every month, but leaders there now don’t know whether those trucks will arrive, said Greta Faworski, the group’s associate director.

“We’re just experiencing a lot of question marks,” she said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty of whether the things that we expect are going to come in or come in at the quantity that we expect.”

Loaves and Fishes hasn’t had to turn anyone away and Faworski said the organization could probably adjust to meet the community’s needs. The group typically buys about half the food it gives away and could buy more if federal shipments don’t come in, she said. The group has had to do so before when federal shipments got delayed for more routine reasons.

But Faworski said she worries about the “symbiotic relationship between what’s happening in the world and the need for food assistance.” As the Trump administration slashes the federal workforce and lawmakers discuss cuts to safety net programs, more people may need food banks at the same time food banks have less to give, Faworski said.

“Hopefully, it all gets worked out and things will continue to flow, but we are nervous,” Faworksi said.

Katy Trudeau, president and CEO at Eastern Market in Detroit, told Bridge that there will be a major impact on her free food program that runs Michigan’s growing season of May through November if funding isn’t freed up within four to six weeks.

“After that, it would be tough to ramp up again,” she said.

Last year, with over $600,000 in federal funding Eastern Market delivered about 1,000 boxes of free fresh food each week to about a dozen nonprofit food banks. They bought produce primarily from local farms, including 16 urban farmers in Detroit.

“It’ll have a significant impact, to the farmers who have been planning for this program, to households who’ve come to rely on the produce that comes in these boxes,” Trudeau said.