Trump admin cancels $21M promised for Arizona to buy food for kids and poor

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is cancelling roughly $1 billion in already-promised spending on local food purchases for schools and food banks nationwide, Politico reported this week.

The Local Food for Schools program provides funding for states to purchase food from local farmers and distribute it to schools and child care programs. A similar initiative, the Local Food Purchase Assistance program, buys and distributes locally-produced food to in-state food banks.

For fiscal year 2025, Arizona had been awarded roughly $13.1 million to purchase food for schools, and an additional $8.1 million to cover products for food banks. Those funds will no longer be distributed.

The programs were initiated under the Biden administration as a way to help farmers, schools and food banks weather the supply chain disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Arizona received awards for both programs in September 2023.

“We look forward to connecting local farmers and food producers with the Arizona Food Bank Network and Pinnacle Prevention,” then-Arizona Department of Economic Security Director Angie Rodgers said at the time. “These partnerships will help underserved communities and families in need, expand the Friends of the Farm efforts and place healthy and nutritious Arizona-grown food on families’ tables, while boosting our local economy.”

USDA data shows that 392 Arizona farmers and food producers participated in the LFPA program. Those producers will now have to find other markets for their products. The bulk of the money, more than $4.8 million, went to farmers growing produce.

Department of Economic Security spokesman Brett Bezio said USDA had not contacted the state about cancelling the Local Food Purchase Assistance program. And although USDA had announced Arizona would be receiving the $8 million, DES had not yet entered into an agreement for the funding.

He said the $8 million would have been directed to Pinnacle Prevention and the Arizona Food Bank Network to purchase food from almost 400 farmers and community organizations throughout the state. But now that the money won’t be coming, “our partners have communicated that they are pausing purchases to evaluate how to best distribute what remains of the existing $15 million LFPA funding through March 2026,” Bezio said in an email.

The school meal program was designed to improve child nutrition and build relationships between local schools and farmers. The Arizona Department of Education launched the “Try it Local: Arizona’s Local Food for Schools Program” initiative to encourage schools and their food vendors to seek out products from local farmers.

“As Superintendent, I have campaigned for healthy foods in our schools,” Superintendent Tom Horne said when the award was announced. “This includes eliminating sugar, sodas in vending machines, using whole wheat, rather than white bread, etc. This USDA initiative for ‘nutritious, local foods for school meal programs’ will be an important contribution to this important goal of protecting our children’s health.”

Doug Nick, a spokesman for the state Department of Education, said the agency is still assessing what to do about the lost funding. In the meantime, he said, Horne is trying to communicate the importance of having locally grown and minimally processed foods on school menus.

“Providing healthy food sources is a goal shared by Horne and the Trump administration and we’re hopeful this information will make the case for sustaining the program,” Nick told the Arizona Mirror.

Compounding the effect of the USDA cuts are efforts by Republican lawmakers in Congress to slash school meal funding to help pay for $4.6 trillion in federal tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy.

“Congress needs to invest in underfunded school meal programs rather than cut services critical to student achievement and health,” said Shannon Gleave, president of the School Nutrition Association, in a statement. “These proposals would cause millions of children to lose access to free school meals at a time when working families are struggling with rising food costs.”

Minnesota Reformer reporter Christopher Ingraham contributed to this report.