What is the status of the federal Local Food Purchase Assistance Program funding in Illinois?
There were two batches of monies, $28.8 million and then $14.7 million, adding up to a collective $43.5 million. The original $28.8 million was frozen, but now we are being told that we’re able to access those funds and complete the draw-down on that amount. The second batch of funds that we were awarded, the $14.7 million for the next fiscal year that starts July 1, we’re being told is terminated.
How is the state trying to pick up the slack from those lost federal funds?
We sent an appeal letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture the first week of April. We think there are legal grounds because these are legally executed contracts between the state and the federal government. This upcoming state budget year we have identified a budget gap of possibly a couple of billion dollars, so it’s going to be hard to make up those canceled federal funds.
What will happen to the LFPA grants to Illinois farmers and food banks that were announced last fall?
Those grants were part of the original $28.8 million, so we should be able to fulfill those awards. There is an estimated $3 million left to spend down on that original amount.
What about the federal funds promised under the Resilient Food Infrastructure program?
We were awarded $6.4 million, and those monies were frozen. We are trying to work with the federal government on this program as well, asking them to turn those monies back on. These grants are for the middle of the food supply chain, after harvest but before retail sales, and the highest dollar items are for refrigerated storage capacity for fresh food products.
Do you think this is in keeping with the Trump administration’s pledge to “Make America Healthy Again?”
Absolutely not. There were 176 producers in the LFPA program and the food they were producing was going to 883 food-insecure communities or sites, mostly food banks. Fresh, local produce is the best way to get nutrient-dense food to people that are in food-insecure communities.
How do these developments make you feel?
Honestly, I’m sick to my stomach about it. What bothers me the most is that these monies are contractually agreed upon by the federal government and the state of Illinois. It is a pass-through situation, so we are reimbursing people for monies that they have already spent. In good faith, we have agreed to reimbursing these producers because we had a contract with the federal government.
The instability and insecurity that this creates, even if some of these programs are turned back on, (is that) people are going to be very hesitant to spend money if they can’t count on the fact that they will be reimbursed. Farmers are business people who have to make decisions based on information we have given to them. The irrational aspect of cutting things and then turning them back on breeds instability. There are people who are already hesitant about doing business with the government.
At the end of the day, we should be the ones who are the backbone that people can rely upon. When the federal or state government gives its word, we should keep it. Congress and the president passed a budget that had these promised funds in it. They should honor the monies that were contractually promised to producers.
– Dave Blanchette