Iowa will lose $11.3 million in federal funding that would have been used to buy locally produced food for schools, childcare facilities and food banks due to cuts to USDA programs by the Trump administration.
“This funding was meant to build upon the $7.8 million invested in Iowa since 2022 through similar programs,” according to Iowa Valley RC&D, a nonprofit that works to support farmers and local food systems. “This funding impacted 135 Iowa school districts, 300 farms, 951 food distribution locations in 98 counties and proved the positive impact on communities across the state.”
“If this funding is pulled back, Iowa farm families, small businesses, employees, school districts, and food assistance programs will be hit the hardest,” Jason Grimm, the nonprofit’s executive director, added. “The market that many farms were preparing for has suddenly dried up, turning their planned investments in livestock, feed, seed, fuel, fertilizer, and equipment into liabilities. Farmers will be forced to cancel scheduled meat locker dates, scramble to reverse pre-orders for essential supplies, or absorb the full financial burden if cancellations aren’t possible.”
Politico reported that state and local officials were informed on Friday by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service it would no longer provide previously scheduled funds through its Local Food for School Program, Local Food for Child Care Program and Local Food Purchasing Assistance Program. More than 40 state and tribal governments had signed agreements with the USDA to participate in the programs this year.
“In a statement, a USDA spokesperson confirmed that funding, previously announced last October, ‘is no longer available and those agreements will be terminated following 60-day notification,’” Politico reported.
“The spokesperson added: ‘These programs, created under the former Administration via Executive authority, no longer effectuate the goals of the agency.’”
The spokesperson did not explain what the goals of USDA are now.
The Biden administration expanded the programs and increased their funding because it considered creating and improving local food systems, and providing schools and food banks with alternatives to relying on the major food companies to be important priorities of USDA.
Farmers, schools and food hubs in Iowa had already spent months preparing to meet the needs of this year’s programs, based on the funding the USDA had committed to.
The Des Moines Register reported that Don McDowell, the spokesman for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) said in a statement Monday “it should not come as a surprise that a program announced in October 2024 by executive action, rather than legislatively directed, won’t be continued past its original end date.”
But as recently as Wednesday last week, state officials were still working on plans for these programs in the belief that federal funding remained intact, Michelle Kenyon, executive director of Field to Family, told Little Village.
“As recently as last Wednesday afternoon we met with state officials to discuss the Local Food for Schools Program,” Kenyon said. “For this second round, they had added early childcare [facilities] and they added more school districts as being eligible for these programs. So they were asking us to scale up, get ready to meet even a larger demand than we did in 2024.
“To have this announcement made a few days later is devastating,” she said about the USDA cuts.
Field to Family is an Iowa City-based nonprofit that works with farmers to make fresh, locally produced food available to childcare centers, schools, retirement communities, colleges, universities and other institutions, and operates an online farmers market that anyone in the Iowa City area can shop at.
Through “the Local Food for School Program and the Local Food Purchasing Assistance Program, we’ve made significant investments in our community food system here,” Kenyon said. “It’s been three years now, we’ve seen the success of those investments. We’ve seen the ability of Iowa farmers to feed more Iowa residents, feed more school children in our state.”
Many of the small farms Field to Family works with have had to rely on sales at farmers markets and through CSAs in the past. Both are time and labor intensive, making it difficult for small-scale farmers to rely on those approaches. The programs the USDA cut funding for allowed those farmers to focus on wholesale rather than those small retail sales.
“That makes their operations more efficient,” Kenyon explained. “And it gives them fair pay for their crops, and the pride of knowing that they are feeding our schoolchildren and feeling our communities.”
And it’s not just the farmers who had already invested resources and time preparing for the three programs the Trump administration cut.
“Field to Family as an organization has made investments as well,” Kenyon said. “We were told to be ready to scale up and meet a larger demand. We’ve made investments in staff and space and other infrastructure in order to meet that demand.”
“We said yes when we were asked, because we’re committed to continuing to grow our community food system.”
On Monday, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig sent out a news release announcing the launch of a pilot program called “Choose Iowa Food Purchasing Program for Schools.” The program will provide up to $1,000 per school building to schools that apply and are selected “to encourage school food service programs to buy more ingredients and serve more products sourced from local farmers and small businesses.” School must provide one-to-one matching funds to be eligible for the state funds. Only $70,000 has been budgeted for the program’s grants.
In a statement issued by the Iowa Food Systems Coalition, Food Service Director for the Clear Lake Community School District Julie Udelhofen reflected on what the loss of funding from the USDA’s Local Food for School Program means for Iowa schools.
It “isn’t just about what will happen — it’s about what won’t,” Udelhofen said. “Schools won’t be able to serve fresh, nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables that encourage lifelong healthy eating. Local farmers won’t have reliable markets to grow diverse crops that nourish our communities instead of just fueling corporations. We won’t see increased scratch cooking in schools, which improves food quality and job satisfaction for food service workers. The chain reaction of benefits that Local Food for Schools creates — stronger economies, healthier kids, and more resilient communities — will be lost.”
“Did we learn nothing from the broken supply chains during COVID?”
