Philabundance said federal cuts to nutrition programs have already dramatically reduced their funding — and warned that proposed changes in Congress could further exacerbate food insecurity.
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The largest food bank in Philadelphia laid out the impact in stark statistics during a town hall presentation last week. Since the Trump administration axed U.S. Department of Agriculture hunger relief programs earlier this spring, the nonprofit said it has lost the equivalent of $525,000 in food. Lauren Webb, chief food sourcing officer for Philabundance, said the organization will lose another $2 million in food over the next year, and it expects to receive 62% less food from the federal government in 2026 and 2027 than it did in 2024 or 83% less than it did at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The group attributed the losses chiefly to cuts from two USDA programs. In March, the Trump administration scaled back the Emergency Food Assistance Program, or TEFAP, which provides American-grown produce to states. That same month, it eliminated the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement, or LFPA, which supported food bank purchases from local farms.
As LFPA disappeared, so did $1.5 million from Philabundance’s budget. This loss will reduce the nonprofit’s purchasing power by 18% in 2026, Webb said. The nonprofit had bought over $4 million in food from Pennsylvania growers, like Sunny Harvest in Lancaster County, since LFPA started in 2022.
While federal assistance has dwindled, need has risen. According to Philabundance, over 600,000 people in its Delaware Valley service area do not have enough to eat. Loree D. Jones, the nonprofit’s CEO, said the organization’s partners are struggling to meet demand. The Trump administration’s proposed $267 billion reduction in food stamp funding, included in the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act before the U.S. Senate, would leave an even greater gap for food banks to make up.
“The reality is we can’t (make it up),” Jones said.
Philabundance staffers and allies urged supporters to lobby their senators, particularly Pennsylvania’s freshman Sen. Dave McCormick (R), during the town hall. Vince Hall, chief government relations officer for Feeding America, said the proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program could erase the equivalent of 9.5 billion meals. About 2 million Pennsylvania residents, including almost 500,000 people in Philadelphia, rely on SNAP benefits each month. Roughly 800,000 New Jersey residents also use the program monthly.
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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
