In response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) termination of the Local Food Purchasing Assistance (LFPA) program, Gov. Josh Shapiro announced this week that the state will be appealing the action.

The LFPA provides funds to the state’s farmers who supply local food banks with fresh products to be distributed to community members at risk for food insecurity.

Locally, food pantries at nonprofits and churches distribute the food to area residents.

Dawn Astin, the American Rescue Workers’ business administrator, issued a statement on the impact on the people they serve if the program is not reinstated.

“The American Rescue Workers relies on the Central PA Food Bank to purchase a significant amount of food each year, through federally subsidized food programs that include fruits and vegetables,” she said.

“If federal funding is pulled from the Central PA Food Bank, the trickle down effect to the American Rescue Workers results in significant challenges in sourcing enough healthy food, primarily fruits and vegetables, to meet the needs of the community. This loss of support would directly impact our ability to provide balanced nutritious meals to 1,000+ families per month, including children, seniors, veterans and individuals experiencing food insecurity,” she continued, adding, “Consequently, we would have to rely predominantly on private donations and local funding to continue serving the thousands who depend on these healthy options through our food programs each month.”

According to information from the governor’s office, the $13 million contract with the USDA for the LFPA program supports 189 farms in the state and 14 food banks. The contract was for a three-year period and provided for fresh local food from farmers to help feed those at risk.

Earlier this month the Shapiro administration received notice from the federal government that they were abruptly canceling the contract.

“This reckless cut comes amid increased strain the federal government is imposing on Pennsylvania farmers through reckless tariffs,” the governor’s office stated.

“Additionally, farmers will not receive the money that they expected to earn through the program.

189 Pennsylvania farms will lose a critical source of revenue — and 14 food banks across the Commonwealth will lose access to local, fresh food,” Shapiro said.

The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, which serves this area, will be impacted by the cancellation of the program.

“It comes to about $1.8 million and that was for the period beginning around April, next month. It was supposed to last through, in our case, at least through the end of the next fiscal year, so June of 2026, that’s what we knew about,” according to Joe Arthur, CEO of the food bank.

“It’s a lot of purchasing power for our food budget, because we do have to buy a lot of food. Generally around 70% of our food comes from donated food from our food businesses. We have hundreds of them, but you know some of the primaries, like our grocery friends, Weis and Giant… then the other 30 percent is a split between federal and state programs, and then what we buy ourselves with donor money,” Arthur explained.

“It basically cuts into our food budget,” Arthur said of the cancelled contract. “It’s the part of our food budget that we can use directly with our Pennsylvania farmers and producers. And that makes it doubly problematic and unfortunate.”

Because of the loss of funding, the food bank loses the ability to purchase things like milk, butter, cheese, eggs, fruits, vegetables and meat from local farmers. These are the foods that people use for home cooked meals, he said.

“So that aspect is important, too. It’s highly nutritious. It’s local, and of course, our neighbors that are in need are not receiving that food,” he said.

Unfortunately it is not feasible to obtain some other source of funding to offset the loss of the USDA program.

There are two state programs that the food bank utilizes — the State Food Purchase Program (SFPP) and the Pennsylvania Agriculture Surplus System (PASS) — and Arthur said that the governor is requesting an additional $4 million for each of those programs statewide.

“So that will be a help if the General Assembly approves that. That would be a help, but not a replacement,” he said.

“It’s really not feasible to be able to replace all of the impact of the Local Food Purchasing Assistance program from the USDA. We likely cannot make that up. The environment is just too challenging — we’re really at hunger crisis levels of need,” he said,

The fresh and frozen products from the farmers made its way into all of the programs offered by the food bank, such as those for seniors, military share, traditional food pantries and with summer coming, some of the takeaway food programs offered to children.

“It really goes through our whole range of different food sharing programs,” Arthur said.

He stressed that this does not mean that people will not have access to food from the food bank, it just means that they may not have the types of food that they did before.

“They’ll receive food. We want to make sure people are absolutely reaching out for help, but they just might not have the variety of that additional locally grown food. So the amount that they can receive in food will probably be somewhat less and just some of the really good products,” he said.

“That’s where the crimp is, on some of those products. We’re still absolutely working with our partners to make sure everybody is served. It just cuts into the amount of some of the very best food that we can provide,” he added.