In late March, it was announced that $500M in Commodity Credit Corporation funding is now cut for food
banks and emergency food providers, which is allocated through the USDA’s Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). Read an article announcing the cuts here. This is one of the three main ways that The Emergency Food Assistance Program receives food to feed food-insecure individuals and families across the nation.
These cuts will affect the food supply at area food banks, including those West CAP depends on in Hudson and Eau Claire to support our own TEFAP operation. West CAP is the main grantee of the TEFAP contract for West Central Wisconsin. Through the program, we help track, manage, record, monitor, and coordinate the distribution of millions of pounds of TEFAP food across 38 food outlets in west central Wisconsin.
Due to these cuts, the upcoming federal TEFAP food order for the state of Wisconsin, which was already placed and approved, has now been canceled for delivery dates May 31 through September 3rd 2025. This equals over 80,000 pounds of food coming into Wisconsin, and 20,213 pounds of food now cancelled that were to come to Feed My People Food Bank and St. Croix Valley Food Bank, our main suppliers. The items cancelled include milk, eggs, cheese, chicken, pork, and turkey. This will have an immediate and direct effect on our TEFAP food program and distribution, which we manage across 38 partner food outlets in rural west central Wisconsin.
TEFAP Program – Food Security Unit, WI Department of Health Services
Immediate effects will be felt as we must find alternative ways to distribute milk, eggs, cheese, and meat products to our own local pantry in Boyceville, and to help our partners do the same. Our TEFAP leaders at the WI Dept of Health Services tell us the other TEFAP food sources remain stable and are expected to be delivered. The USDA has not issued any guidance following the cancellations.
To learn more, here are some publications issued about the cuts:
Evers berates White House as cutbacks in USDA local food programs concern farmers
USDA halts millions of dollars worth of deliveries to food banks