Our Response to the USDA Cutting Over $1 Billion in Local Food Funding

The USDA’s decision to cut over $1 billion in local food funding — including $660 million from the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program — undermines years of progress toward improving the quality of school meals and bipartisan goals to improve children’s health.

By stripping schools and childcare facilities of the funds they rely on to purchase fresh, local food, these budget cuts will force many districts to scale back or abandon local purchasing efforts — making it even harder to provide students with healthy, scratch-cooked meals — at a time when families are already facing rising food costs and more nutrition insecurity. These cuts will also hurt local farmers who have come to rely on revenue from schools. 

The cuts will affect the more than 16,000 schools that the Chef Ann Foundation has worked with to serve more freshly prepared, scratch-cooked meals. We are already hearing from our district partners that have been using these funds to serve local foods – like local lettuce on their salad bars, local butternut squash in soups, local berries in oatmeals – that with these cuts they will have to look at going back to purchasing foods from big farms outside of their states. Our partner districts in Iowa alone, for example, will lose access to $11.3 million allocated for local food purchasing in its state budget.

The most recent USDA Farm to School Census shows that 74% of school food authorities participate in farm-to-school activities, with schools investing $1.8 billion in local food purchasing last year. These programs have led to real benefits for our kids: 61% of school food authorities report farm-to-school activities have led to students eating more fruits and vegetables, and 57% report the quality of school meals has improved. 

We also should not forget that just a few years ago during the height of the pandemic schools faced massive supply chain disruptions with large food distributors. Since 2020, we have worked with many districts to contract with local farms, ranchers, and producers to make sure they have local and resilient food supply chains in their communities. Federal local food funds made these relationships possible. 

The Chef Ann Foundation remains committed to making school meals fresher, healthier, and more appetizing for all kids. This work will always include helping schools purchase more ingredients from local farms and strengthening community food systems.