(USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.)
A network of food banks and charitable organizations that distributes food from the U.S.Department of Agriculture (USDA) to low-income seniors called on Congress to preserve funding for the program in the upcoming federal budget.
Pennsylvania is the fourth-largest recipient of aid under the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), behind California, Texas and Michigan. Cuts to the USDA funding bill would have an outsized impact on the commonwealth, where 38,000 seniors receive monthly food packages through the program, Hunger-Free Pennsylvania said.
“We must at all costs preserve the critical and vital safety net that CSFP provides for our most vulnerable Pennsylvanians – our seniors,” Hunger-Free Pennsylvania Executive Director Stuart I.R. Haniff said.
According to the nonprofit Food Research & Action Center, the Trump administration proposes a $425 million cut to eliminate CSFP and replace the aid with Make America Healthy Again Food Boxes, which source food items directly from farmers.
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Hunger-Free Pennsylvania, which represents the commonwealth’s 18 food banks serving all 67 counties, said funding should be maintained at current levels, at a minimum.
“If Congress fails to fully fund this program, our most vulnerable seniors will lose access to the nutritious food they need to live healthier lives,” Haniff said.
The CSFP delivers food packages designed to provide protein, calcium, iron and vitamins A and C to people 60 and older who have an income below 150% of the federal poverty level. For a single-person household, that’s about $23,500 a year, according to Hunger-Free Pennsylvania.
The network said the program has been a “resounding success,” recently surpassing 250,000 deliveries through the meal delivery app DoorDash’s Project DASH, which allows food banks and pantries to work with DoorDash drivers and technology to distribute aid.
“Often, the contact with a home delivery representative is the only human contact these seniors have – and sometimes the only eyes to check on them and their well-being,” Hunger-Free Pennsylvania said in a statement.
The organization’s call for attention to the program comes as Pennsylvania officials fight with the Trump administration over the cancellation of an initiative that provides millions of dollars for farmers who provide products for food banks across the state.
Along with a threatened lawsuit, Gov. Josh Shapiro has said the Trump administration broke a three-year contract between the federal government and the state.
The deal, the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA), was established in 2021 under President Joe Biden’s administration in response to the coronavirus pandemic. It supported about 190 farms and 13 food banks.
The latest contract was renewed in the final months of Biden’s term. However, Trump’s administration confirmed in March that the program was ending, impacting farmers and food banks across the nation.
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