Governor of Pennsylvania Josh Shapiro asks the administration of President Donald Trump to consider the decision to cancel $ 13 million financing of food banks in Pennsylvania for the purchase of food from local farmers.
Shapiro said the US Department of Agriculture on Tuesday He canceled a three -year contract, and the state agreed in December. In response, he said, the Secretary of Agriculture in Pennsylvania will make an internal appeal, and the agency questions the cancellation.
If USDA does not change the course, he said, Pennsylvania may undertake legal proceedings.
“Farmers and food banks in Pennsylvania are guilty of $ 13 million, and I will not stand and let our farmers screw up,” said Shapiro at a press conference on Tuesday at Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, which lost $ 1.8 million expected by federal dollars.
Shapiro, the first democrat and former prosecutor general, has already sued Trump’s administration by over $ 2.1 billion for environmental and energy projects in the state. And the governor warned last week after Trump signed the order to start dismantling the Education Department that he would consider legal proceedings against administration if they were affected by students in Pennsylvania.
»Read more: Pa. Food banks are in the face of millions of federal financing cuts because they are afraid that the need is increased
At the beginning of this month, USDA announced that it would end the program of a local food purchasing agreement in the amount of USD 470 million, arguing that it was time to go on the initiative from the time of Pandemic.
In a letter to the federal government on Tuesday, the secretary of agriculture Pennsylvania Russell Redding said that USDA told you that the program did not meet the agency’s priorities. He replied that there were no grounds In the event of a claim, noting that the program supported 190 farms throughout the state, while providing 25.9 million pounds of food to charity organizations over the past three years.
In a statement, the USDA spokesman repeated that the agency was moving away from Covid programs, and said that the agency remains involved in the mission of strengthening food safety, agricultural markets and access to vigorous food.
“There is nothing unlawful in reviving the temporarily limited initiative from the time of Pandemia, which is not in line with current faculty priorities,” he said. “Unlike the Biden administration, which exceeded billions [USDA’s Commodity Credit Corp.] Funds for short -term programs without a long -term plan, USDA prioritizes stable, proven solutions that have a lasting impact. “
In the meantime, the USDA decision to cancel the program left food banks throughout the state, struggling with the loss of financing, which covered the costs of over a million meals a year in the area of ​​the metro in Philadelphia. The funds were transferred to 14 food banks throughout the state in three years.
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Philabundance, which serves Philadelphia and suburban poviats, lost 18% of the budget for the purchase of food. The food campaign in Philadelphia lost $ 1.4 million, and the Council in Bucks lost about USD 260,000 a year.
The cuts arrived when the leaders of food banks said they were facing the demand that reflects the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Leaders are worried that the lack of food safety will deteriorate among tariffs, growing housing costs and republican proposals for reducing food vouchers and other net safety programs.
George Matysik, executive director of the Food Food program, said in a statement before the announcement of Shapiro that the organization is threatened with a loss of $ 8 million and funds this year due to the merger of several financing cuts.
“President Trump announces a war to poor people. This time, attacking hungry students and their families, Trump’s administration recently released the next round of unrestricted financing cuts – and we are still preparing what is to come,” said Matysik.
Chris Hoffman, president of Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, told Tuesday press conference that he was in contact with the Secretary of USDA Brooke Rollins and hoped that the food purchase program could be stable in the next bill for agriculture.
Shapiro, who pointed to readiness to work with the Republican President, was rapidly critical of the Trump administration, who, as he said, hurt farmers he claims to support.
»Read more: Governor Josh Shapiro says that he will consider legal proceedings against Trump’s administration, if the cuts of education affect PA.
He called Trump’s efforts to impose the tariff “the stupidest economic decision I saw, as the president did”, and formulated financing cuts as another example of the chaos sown by the federal government, which will harm the families and companies in Pennsylvania.
“All the chaos he created causes real harm to our farmers,” said Shapiro. “Here in Pennsylvania we want to explain that we are celebrating our farmers and we have your back.”
