Pennsylvania challenging USDA food assistance contract cancellation

• Rachel McDevitt/StateImpact Pennsylvania
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  I report on energy and the environment for StateImpact Pennsylvania at WITF.
  
  My work focuses on responses and solutions to climate change in the state legislature and communities around the state. I trace my interest in these issues back to my time as a Girl Scout and this episode of Rocko’s Modern Life.
  
  I look forward to winter just for the chance to ski a few times each season. I try to keep myself from doom-scrolling on my phone by keeping my hands busy knitting and learning to play the piano.
  
  I grew up in Cambria County, Pa. and graduated from Temple University. I started at WITF just after Christmas in 2014.

 Rachel McDevitt / WITF

Volunteers from Highmark sort apples on the "Green Machine" at the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank.

Pennsylvania is challenging the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s cancellation of a $13 million contract that helps local farmers supply food to area food pantries.

The Local Food Purchasing Assistance Program supports 14 food banks and 189 farms across the state, including 16 farms or farm collectives in Lancaster County.

“For our food bank alone, that cut means losing $1.8 million over 15 months — that’s $120,000 a month and 500,000 meals that won’t reach the children and adults who rely on us,” said Joe Arthur, CEO of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank.

The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank serves 253,000 people each month across 27 counties, including Lancaster County.

Pennsylvania got $28 million for the program over the last two years. It just signed a new contract for $13 million in December. The USDA told the state earlier this month that it was terminating the agreement.

Gov. Josh Shapiro said he’s ordering an administrative challenge to the contract cancellation and is prepared to take legal action.

Shapiro said he wants to make sure “those in our community who are hungry get fed, and the farmers who provide that food get the respect and the check that they were counting on.”

Dairy farmer Amy Brickner of Destiny Dairy Bar in Carlisle said milk is one of the most requested items at food banks. She said the program helped cover expenses for bottling surplus milk that would otherwise go to waste.

Brickner is still donating her surplus milk, as the program’s funding is in flux.

“This winter was tough. I absorbed costs I can’t afford, but I’m proud of the work I do,” Brickner said.

Shapiro is proposing budget increases for similar state-level programs.

His budget plan for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, boosts the Pennsylvania Agricultural Surplus System (PASS) and the State Food Purchase Program by $4 million each, bringing total funding for the programs to $34.6 million.

The State Food Purchase Program gives grants to counties to buy and distribute food to low income individuals.

PASS reimburses farmers for their costs to harvest, package, and process surplus agricultural products, and redirects those products to the charitable food system.

“I know President Trump and his administration like to talk a big game about supporting our farmers,” Shapiro said. “But some of the actions that we have seen over the last couple of months coming out of the federal government like this one, it actually makes farmers’ lives way more difficult in Pennsylvania.”

A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.

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