Ozarks Food Harvest will lose $3 million in food from USDA cuts this year
Ozarks Food Harvest will lose an estimated $3 million worth of food this year due to recent USDA cuts to The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). A third of the cancelled orders were protein items like beef, chicken, eggs and pork, which are often the most expensive for us to purchase.
Without this food, more families will face hard decisions in the coming months, like whether to buy groceries or keep on the lights. Feeding America’s latest Map the Meal Gap study shows that 1 in 5 children and 1 in 6 adults continue to face hunger in Ozarks Food Harvest’s service area, which covers a third of the state of Missouri. As I write this, Congress is even proposing deeper cuts to federal nutrition programs like SNAP, which support working families across Missouri.
Our community and network of charities can’t afford to fill this gap, so they’ll be relying on The Food Bank for help. With the increased cost of groceries and food insecurity at a 10-year high, we will face a challenging year to meet the increased demand for food.
To end hunger in the Ozarks, we need public and private partnerships to invest more food and resources into our community. As you’ve read in Charlie’s article, federal nutrition programs strongly affect Ozarks Food Harvest’s meal distribution and hunger rates in southwest Missouri. That’s why a strong Farm Bill and a well-supported Food Bank are so important. Working together, they serve as the backbone of hunger relief across our third of the state.
Ozarks Food Harvest plays a critical role as the safety net for the safety net. Nearly half of individuals facing hunger in the Ozarks don’t qualify for SNAP even though most are working to improve their situation. With these programs out of reach, many families may have nowhere to turn to help fill the gap when times are tough. Our job is to help families facing hunger make
ends meet, especially folks living paycheck to paycheck that need just a little help at the end of the month to put food on the table for their children.
But we can’t do it alone. Please consider donating today to help families in need. If you’re already giving, thank you for your support. Your gifts are needed more than ever. Together, we can make a difference for our neighbors in the Ozarks.