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Future Funding of Local Food Purchasing Assistance Program Remains Terminated
After a series of Trump administration cuts and freezes to USDA-administered farm programs, we have finally learned about one action that will provide some relief.
It involves the IL-EATS program, funded by the Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) Cooperative Agreement, that was abruptly terminated in early March, putting many farmers and other program participants at financial risk. Many of them had made substantial expenditures under a contractual agreement that the federal government would reimburse them.
The two Illinois state agencies that administered IL-EATS — the departments of Agriculture and Human Services — were informed last week that the USDA had lifted the freeze on reimbursements for program activities undertaken since January 19 (the day before the change in the presidency). Program participants were told to expect reimbursement checks to be issued promptly.
Information from both state agencies indicated that with this federal action, they have determined that there is sufficient funding for IL-EATS to continue its program activities through the program's scheduled expiration date of June 30 (the end of Illinois' fiscal year).
Unfortunately, USDA informed that the termination of the overall LFPA program is still in effect, casting a dark cloud over the continuation hoped for by most IL-EATS participants. The program has provided much needed income to small, local farms through the purchase of their food, which is then aggregated by 15 appointed intermediary organizations for distribution to food banks and to needy individual and families.
It is a program that provides great benefits that argue for its continuation.
There also is no indication at this point that USDA has lifted its funding freeze on several major conservation programs, the farm-to-school program and others, whose participants also have been left holding the bag for expenses that they contractually undertook with the expectation of federal reimbursement.
Local Food Forum will continue to follow and report on this fluid situation.
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