WASHINGTON (March 11, 2025) The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the cancellation of $1 billion of funding for the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program (LFS) as well as the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) program, sparking deep concerns that efforts to obtain affordable fresh food for children and low-income families will be severely hindered.
The LFS and LFPA programs provide schools and food banks with much-needed resources to purchase food locally from local farmers and producers. The expansion benefitted local growers as well as schools that were already struggling to afford fresh food for their programs. In addition to adversely impacting local producers, the cancellation announcement will inevitably leave school districts and food banks scrambling to fill gaps left by the lack of funding previously committed.
“This move to cancel agreements and funding through these programs is short-sighted and harmful to communities across the country,” stated Alliance to End Hunger president Eric Mitchell. “LFS and LFPA support local economies, provide nutritious food to kids and families, and builds ties between local farmers and producers and the larger communities around them. At a time when it is already tough to find affordable food, the cancellations do more harm than good.”
The Alliance to End Hunger and its membership will continue to work with national policymakers to ensure policies do not harm local farmers of the communities they serve.
