Trump administrator stops hundreds of California food banks trucks- Calletats

From Jean QuangCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

Five years since the Covid-19 pandemic has increased the economy and made millions of starvation for the first time, demand at the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services is still higher than ever.

The number of monthly customers has increased to 310,000, more than twice the number of people the food bank has served before the pandemic, said spokesman Kevin Buffalino.

So this was a blow this month, he said when the US Department of Agriculture stopped hundreds of millions of dollars Federal Food Funds. The freezing were 11 trucks with food – £ 400,000 – which the Sacramento Food Bank expected over the next few months.

A total of 330 truck loads associated with food banks throughout the country have been stopped, according to the California Association of Food Banks, without specifying when or whether they will be delivered. The biggest potential hit is for the regional Los Angeles Grocery Bank, where 90 expected trucks are in the limbs.

During the Biden administration, orders were promised, which in December announced a bonus round of orders for food at the top of the supplies that USDA usually makes to food banks.

The freezing of bonus orders came as food banks banks take care of other cuts – both from the new Trump administration, the intention of reducing federal costs and from the state budget deficit in California after a few budget years of flushing in the pandemic. In Washington, the Congress is also considering redundancies to the extra diet, which sends about $ 1 billion a month to Californians with low -incomes for the purchase of grocery.

But nutrition programs are just one of the many competing priorities that the state legislation dominated by Democrats will have to balance, as California begins to receive a picture of how federal cuts can influence the state and its budget for $ 322 billion. California receives more than $ 314 billion in federal funds for food benefits, health coverage and other social services every year, while federal grants for non -profit organizations and private contracts amount to over $ 81 billion.

Finance Ministry spokesman HD Palmer said it is still too early to determine whether California can afford to compensate for federal costs to reduce.

The Association of Food Banks already calls on legislators not to reduce state dollars for food assistance, but they will be jockey for attention against the background of countless real and potential federal cuts in everything – from higher education to higher education Rural roadResettlement services for refugee and large -scale Medicaid low -income health program.

“These are Sophie’s elections,” said Assembly member Greg Hart, Democrat from Santa Barbara, who chairs a budget subcommittee that evaluates the potential shortcomings of funding. “Anything we can talk about has a federal financing link that is at risk and the state simply has no money to fulfill it.”

Food search has not been delayed

When the constant condition of the legs forced Antoaneta Turner to withdraw early last fall from her long -standing work to change the cemetery at the hospital, she sought ways to save.

The 61-year-old is “regulatory” his savings and accepts help from his son. For the first time in her life, she began to go to the Sacramento Food Bank.

On Tuesday morning, at the parking lot of Sacramento, she walked along the mounting line of food pallets, while volunteers offered canned soup, peanut butter, beans, rice and frozen turkey breasts. Hundreds of people were expected, including retirees, disabled veterans and immigrant families from Russia, Ukraine and Afghanistan, who settled in the various suburbs of Sacramento.

“It would be sad” if the organization had to cut it, Turner said. “This makes my life easier.”

Merging cuts can force the food bank to do just that, Buffalino said.

Earlier in March, the USDA stopped a Biden era grants that gave money to food banks and tribal governments to buy food from local farmers.

California food banks have received more than $ 80 million in the 2022 program, with some grants expected to continue until mid -2026. They are expecting another $ 47 million in the next round of the program, before being reduced on March 7, said Social Services State Department spokesman Jason Montiel.

It was not clear why the grant was canceled and the orders stopped. USDA employees did not respond to requests sent to the comment on the agency’s press message. According to Trump, federal agencies have moved to stop or reduce grants in their quest to purify the waste and cost of programs that do not meet the ideological tests of the administration.

California is also planned to reduce the funding of food banks. For a few years, when the state had a record surplus, it spent millions of extra dollars to a state program called Chrood, which allows food banks to buy from local farmers or food producers such as tortiler.

These amplings have gave food banks about $ 60 million a year through the calf in the last three years; In the budget governor, Gavin Newsom has suggested for the fiscal year, which starts in July, this funding will return to $ 8 million.

California food banks depend on help

Federal and state-owned food purchases make up the majority of $ 3.5 million that Sacramento’s Food Bank spends to buy food annually, Buffalino said.

The food purchased represents 40% of the groceries that the food bank distributes; The rest is delivered by the USDA or is recovered from supermarkets that can no longer sell it.

With a sharp reduction of the two buying funds, Buffalino said that the Sacramento Grocery Bank would either have to rely more on private donations or reduce how much it gives to each recipient.

Although demand at the food bank was slightly withdrawn as jobs began to recover from the pandemic, customers quickly returned because of inflation, Buffalino said. Food prices last year were Nearly 24% higher than in 2020

“It has been a stable increase (customers) in the last five years,” he said.

Farmers will also be affected by the cancellation of grants.

Federal food buying funds have allowed small farmers to buy new equipment, invest in greenhouses and expand their prints to serve bulk -water buyers, said Megan Kenny of the North Coast Producers Association in Humbolt.

Kenny coordinates food orders between two regional food banks and about 40 farmers, all of which plant less than 100 acres each. In the winter, she and farmers planned what to plant based on the demand for food banks, expecting federal funds to support purchases.

“They were encouraged to do such things,” Kenny said. “If they have to make a bigger investment in seeds or labor without returning, they could really see this impact.”

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.