The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has terminated two key initiatives designed to support local food purchasing by schools and food banks. This decision affects over $1 billion in federal funding, with approximately $660 million allocated for educational institutions and childcare centers to source food from local farms through the Food for Cooperative Agreement for 2025 now being scrapped.

The terminated programs include the Local Food for Schools (LFS) program and the Local Food Assistance Cooperative Program (LFPA), which aided food banks and feeding organizations. State authorities were notified of the USDA’s decision to discontinue these programs for the current year, impacting more than 40 states that had previously participated.

These initiatives were established under the previous administration to enhance the food supply chain by supporting local farmers and reducing reliance on large food corporations. The Biden administration had increased funding for these programs, aiming to create a more robust and diverse food supply system.

The cancellation comes at a challenging time for school nutrition officials, who are struggling to provide nutritious meals due to rising food prices and inadequate federal reimbursement rates. This decision is also likely to exacerbate the financial strain on families seeking assistance from food banks.

A USDA spokesperson stated that the funding is no longer available and that existing agreements will conclude after a 60-day notice. The spokesperson added that these programs no longer align with the agency’s objectives, although agreements active prior to this fiscal year will remain valid until their performance period ends.

“With research showing school meals are the healthiest meals Americans eat, Congress needs to invest in underfunded school meal programs rather than cut services critical to student achievement and health,” said SNA President Shannon Gleave, RDN, SNS. “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. Meanwhile, short-staffed school nutrition teams, striving to improve menus and expand scratch-cooking, would be saddled with time-consuming and costly paperwork created by new government inefficiencies.”

The Local Food for Schools (LFS) and Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement (LFPA) programs had significant impacts on both the children they served and the local communities involved.

Impact on Children:

• Nutrition and Health: Both programs provided schools and childcare centers with access to fresh, locally sourced foods, enhancing the nutritional quality of meals served to children. This helped ensure that children received healthier options, which are crucial for their development and well-being.
• Community Connection: By incorporating local foods into school meals, children were more likely to be exposed to diverse, regionally specific produce, fostering an appreciation for local agriculture and community resources.
• Food Security: The LFPA program specifically targeted underserved communities by distributing locally sourced foods through food banks and pantries. This improved access to nutritious food for vulnerable populations, enhancing overall food security in these areas.

Impact on Local Communities:

• Economic Benefits: The programs supported local farmers by providing them with stable markets for their produce. This helped increase farm revenues, contributing to the economic vitality of rural areas and supporting small-scale agricultural operations.
• Market Expansion: LFS and LFPA expanded local and regional markets by creating new income streams for farmers and food producers. This encouraged farmers to scale up production, invest in their operations, and diversify their offerings.

The Iowa Farmer’s Union wrote, “For Iowa farmers, the impact is immediate and potentially devastating. Producers who have already planned over $3 million in food sales in 2025 through these programs now face sudden financial uncertainty. Our members ramped up production, expanded operations, and made investments in response to what seemed like a guaranteed market to schools and food access sites. Farmers who scaled up their businesses to meet the demand of these programs now don’t know how they’ll recoup costs. Vegetable farmers, who already operate with slim profit margins, may struggle to make ends meet, and schools and food access sites that have come to rely on these programs for access to fresh, nutritious food will be left without options.”

“LFPA has been the most impactful federal program I’ve seen in my decade of growing vegetables for local markets,” added Jordan Scheibel, owner of Middle Way Farm in Grinnell. “In many cases, it’s not that Iowa’s communities can’t produce the food locally, it’s that farmers cannot risk scaling up unless they know that what they grow can be sold. LFPA gives that certainty to many growers. This funding being unceremoniously cut off hurts farmers, low-income households, and rural vitality with no discernable benefit. It’s short-sighted and, in fact, wastes the effort and planning that has gone into the program up to this point. I hope that once decision-makers understand the impact of this funding cut, they will reconsider this course of action.”