USDA Cuts More Than $1 Billion Earmarked For Local Food In Schools, Food Banks

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has cut more than $1 billion in federal programs that gave schools and food banks funding to purchase food from local farms and ranchers ― a move that school lunch advocates say will take away free meals from millions of children whose parents are grappling with rising grocery prices.

The School Nutrition Association (SNA), a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring children are fed nutritious meals in schools, sounded the alarm on the program cuts Monday.

“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,” SNA president Shannon Gleave, a registered dietitian nutritionist, said.

“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,” she continued. “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.”

SNA said more than 800 of its members are visiting Capitol Hill today to urge Congress to block the USDA’s cuts and keep investing in school meal programs.

The USDA confirmed to HuffPost that it had notified states of the two programs being cut: the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program (LFS), which gave $660 million to schools and child care facilities, and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA), which funded local food banks and other similar organizations.

A USDA spokesperson defended the change as a return to fiscal responsibility ― mirroring messaging from Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency ― and labeled LFPA and LFS as bygone needs from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As a pandemic-era program, LFPA will now be sunsetted, marking a return to long-term, fiscally responsible initiatives,” the spokesperson told HuffPost. “This isn’t an abrupt shift — just last week, USDA provided over half a billion in LFPA and LFS funding to fulfill existing commitments and support ongoing local food purchases.”

The spokesperson said USDA still has more than a dozen other “robust” nutrition programs in place and that this will allow the agency to focus on other efforts.

“Unlike the Biden Administration … USDA is prioritizing stable, proven solutions that deliver lasting impact. The COVID era is over — USDA’s approach to nutrition programs will reflect that reality moving forward.”

While the world may no longer be in a pandemic state, the rising cost of once-affordable, nutrient-packed grocery essentials is a strain on parents’ wallets. Overall, the USDA found, food prices in January 2025 were 2.5% higher than in January 2024. But the skyrocketing, record-high cost of eggs has made the biggest headlines, with the USDA saying egg prices are predicted to increase 41.1% this year alone.

Economists say President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs are also likely to increase the cost of groceries, at least temporarily.