The U.S. Department of Agriculture slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in funding that helped schools buy food from local farms, in a move that one food service director said was “devastating.”
The department’s $660 million Local Food For Schools program, which was started under President Joe Biden in 2021, was canceled for 2025, according to the School Nutrition Association, which criticized the cuts.
The USDA did not respond to a request for comment. An agency spokesperson told Politico that the programs “no longer effectuate the goals of the agency.”
The program sought to bring local produce to schools and child care facilities, giving schools the opportunities to purchase fresh foods and use smaller producers rather than rely on large corporations.
“This was devastating,” said Nicole Melia, food service director for the Norristown district in Pennsylvania, who also works with the farm-to-school network in the state. “We have been really working on establishing a lot of resources and supports to help schools connect with local farmers. This was a slap in the face to all the work we’ve done.”
The program was part of a larger $1.5 billion effort from the USDA to enhance the school meal program following supply-chain challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal was to help the bottom lines of school lunch programs that typically operate on tight margins, as well as producers that were struggling after the pandemic forced restaurant closures.
The Biden administration created the program through executive action, so it can be undone in the same way.
Educators said the program helped bring fresh produce and variety into the cafeteria that they haven’t always been able to offer.
Melia, whose district is located about 20 miles north of Philadelphia, was able to source apples from nearby orchards and carrots from a nearby farm. The district could purchase local milk and home-grown lettuce—and things that don’t always appear on the menu, like Brussels sprouts and kale.
“It’s so much fresher, and a better product,” Melia said. “It’s possible it was just picked that week and arrived in your cafeteria. That’s not possible coming from California and Florida, at least for us in Pennsylvania.”
The state was due to receive about $23 million this fiscal year. Melia said the Norristown district had already planned out how it would use its share of the money.
In smaller rural areas, schools often want to purchase food locally, said Tara Thomas, government affairs manager for AASA, The School Superintendents Association. But the cost can be quite high.
“In the broader scheme of things, at the end of the day, these critical school nutrition programs operate on paper-thin margins and, at this time, with increased costs,” she said. “Schools need more resources and funding to cover the cost of providing these healthy meals. Any reduction in funding will have a negative impact on schools if you increase the cost of these programs at all.”
The federal subsidies made it easier for Raul Gaston’s Illinois district to keep costs at a minimum while offering local food.
Gaston, the principal of Gompers Jr. High School in Joliet, Ill., said almost all of his 780 students eat breakfast and lunch served at school, and almost all qualify for free or reduced-price meals.
“Good-quality food is sometimes a little harder to get to, and so our kids really rely on that nutrition,” he said. “Without good food, it’s going to be very difficult for them to be able to learn and be able to do the things that kids need to do, in order to grow and feel healthy.”
Broader school meals cuts are under consideration
The Trump administration canceled the local foods program as broader cuts to the National School Lunch Program are under consideration in Congress. Those cuts would follow years in which access to free school meals has flourished, starting during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the USDA allowed every student to qualify for free meals under a waiver that lasted from 2020—during the first Trump administration—to 2022.
Today, roughly 20 million children benefit from the community eligibility provision, which allows a school to provide free meals to all students without requiring that they individually verify their family income and eligibility for free meals. Schools are eligible to participate if 25 percent of their students automatically qualify for free meals through participation in other safety net programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The Biden administration expanded the community eligibility provision in 2023 to allow more schools to provide free meals to all students. The administration also sought to eliminate “junk” fees—processing charges that ultimately increase how much families pay for school meals—for low-income families. Research has found that universal free meals benefits academics, engagement, and even student discipline.
Following the pandemic waivers, a number of states started offering universally free school meals, with help from the community eligibility provision.
Now, Congress is considering other cuts to school meals programs, according to the School Nutrition Association.
Republicans have been eyeing changes to the community eligibility provision, pushing to raise the minimum threshold of eligibility.
Some educators fear that the provision could be outright eliminated, which is a proposal in Project 2025—a 900-page policy agenda spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Trump has tapped some of its authors to serve in his administration, and has already followed several of its outlined policy initiatives.
School Nutrition Association President Shannon Gleave said in a statement that such changes “would cause millions of children to lose access to free school meals at a time when working families are struggling with rising food costs” and that school cafeteria staff “would be saddled with time-consuming and costly paperwork created by new government inefficiencies.”
It would take congressional action to eliminate the community eligibility provision.
2025-03-11 21:24:09
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