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Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding renewed his call this week to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to restore the recently slashed $13 million in federal funding to farmers who sell products to food banks.
Dan Gleiter | [email protected] Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding renewed his call this week to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture to restore the recently slashed $13 million in federal funding to farmers who sell products to food banks. In a letter sent Thursday to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, Redding called the federal agency’s cancellation of the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Assistance Program “unlawful” and harmful to the 190 farms statewide benefiting from the program. “Pennsylvania has held up its end of the bargain,” Redding wrote.
“LFPA funds have been used by food banks across the Commonwealth to buy food directly from Pennsylvania farmers, in furtherance of the program’s essential goals.” In a Friday morning interview with LNP — LancasterOnline, Redding said USDA staff confirmed they had received his letter but did not respond to his request. Redding also said the federal agency had not responded to his initial March 25 letter to its Agricultural Marketing Service, which oversees the food bank program.
The USDA did not respond to a request for comment Friday. Redding’s first letter included a list of farms that have benefited from the purchase assistance program, including more than a dozen in Lancaster County. Farmers contacted Friday did not respond to a request for comment.
During a tour of central Pennsylvania farms, including a stop in Lancaster County, Rollins said there were tens of millions of dollars “sitting in Pennsylvania state accounts” for the purchase assistance program. Redding refuted that in his Thursday letter. He said Rollins mischaracterized how the program works: “To the contrary, Pennsylvania uses its own funds to operate the program, and seeks reimbursement from the USDA after those funds have been spent.
” Former President Joe Biden’s administration launched the purchase assistance program in 2021. Since then, according to the state Agriculture Department, Pennsylvania has received two rounds of funding totaling nearly $30 million. The USDA signed a new contract in December to continue the program with Pennsylvania in 2025.
Then on March 7, Redding said his office received a letter from the USDA announcing it had canceled the food bank contract, stating the program “no longer effectuates agency priorities.” Along with Redding’s initial letter on March 25, Gov. Josh Shapiro, at a press conference at the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank in Harrisburg, threatened to take legal action against the USDA if the funds are not provided.
His administration has already sued the Trump administration over federal funding cuts that have impacted Pennsylvania. Joe Arthur, CEO of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank — the nearest impacted food bank to Lancaster County — said in a news release from the Shapiro administration that cutting the purchase assistance program funding would cost his organization $120,000 a month and “500,000 meals that won’t reach the children and adults who rely on us.”.
