Over one in eight Pennsylvanians face food insecurity, according to 2022 Feeding America data.
Pennsylvania was set to receive $13 million over three years to purchase fresh produce for communities in need. That funding was blocked by the Trump Administration last month.
But some farmers say the Local Food Purchasing Assistance (LFPA) program was deeply flawed and didn’t meet local needs.
Lenny Burger runs Burger’s Farm Market in Drums, Luzerne County. He grows sweet corn year-round and sells produce like blueberries, cabbage and squash on a seasonal basis.
“[The program is] helping 180 farms. There’s close to 50,000 farmers in Pennsylvania … I do feel … not a fair share of [that money] is making it to the farms,” said Burger, whose family has run Burger’s since 1889.
LFPA was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Pennsylvania’s agreement with USDA expired last year, but was extended through a three-year contract in December.
The fund subsidized the cost for food banks to purchase produce from local farmers. State Department of Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding argued in a March 25 appeal that LFPA funding provided $28 million to local farmers and 25.9 million pounds of food to Pennsylvanians in need over the last two-and-a-half years.
In a hearing a few hours after Redding filed his appeal, he said at Harrisburg’s Central Pennsylvania Food Bank that those funds were vital to a “partnership” with state and local food purchasing assistance programs.
“That partnership is critical, and in this case, it's not being honored,” Redding said.
Food banks bear the brunt of funding scarcity
The Harrisburg-based Central Pennsylvania Food Bank serves 27 counties, including Bradford, Tioga, Lycoming, Sullivan, Columbia, Montour, Northumberland, Union and Snyder. That cut totals a loss of $1.8 million over 15 months, or $120,000 a month and 500,000 meals, according to CEO Joe Arthur.
“It also means fewer resources for our local farmers, who supply the fresh, nutritious food that makes this program so impactful. This isn’t just about meals — it’s about families, communities, and our local economy,” Arthur said.
In Luzerne County, the Jenkins Twp.-based Weinberg Northeast Regional Food Bank would lose more than $764,000. According to the state agriculture department, that’s nearly 10% of its budget for food purchases — enough for 900,000 pounds of food, or 740,000 meals over the 3-year period.
Jennifer Warabak, the food bank and Commission of Economic Opportunity’s executive director, said in an April interview the loss would significantly impact Weinberg’s four counties: Luzerne, Lackawanna, Susquehanna and Wyoming.
Over the last year, Warabak said she’s seen a growing need for food bank support. With federal cuts, she fears food banks across the state will struggle to meet community needs.
“I consider the food bank just like somebody's home,” Warabak said. “For example, when your prices go up at home, our [food] prices go up as well … so it's important for us to be able to purchase what we can in an efficient manner.”
In 2023, Weinberg served around 17,000 people per week. Last year, that number increased to around 21,000 people per week. Some of those people made multiple trips to the food bank per week, according to Warabak.
“We're just in a position where we don't know that we'd be able to fully replace what that need is … To make up that difference, it puts a strain on the whole charitable food system itself,” Warabak said.
For eighth-generation potato grower Lela Reichart, the LFPA program gave her the financial backing to work with five food banks. She is vice president of new business development at Sterman Masser Inc., a 5,000-acre potato, hay, and cash grain farming operation in Sacramento, Schuylkill County,
In a press release from the state agricultural department, she said "this federal funding is critical for us to continue to ensure our work with local food banks can be included in our market plans, and that a year round supply of potatoes to the food banks that make it to people who are food insecure."
Smaller farms, food organizations hopeful for new options
Not everyone is a fan of the federal funding program.
Burger said LFPA mostly helped wholesale distributors, supermarkets and larger farms. It incentivised big operations to grow excess food and donate it for a small profit.
“That’s not fair to the consumer,” said Burger, who said food through the LFPA program was often “past its shelf life” by the time it reached the consumer.
“You're just making somebody else pay your dumpster bill,” Burger said.
Burger pushed for increased funding to programs which he says “cuts out the middleman” and puts “money [directly] in the farmer’s hand.” He was critical of food banks and said more funding should go towards programs like the state’s Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP), which helps lower-income seniors, women and children purchase food at farmers’ markets.
He added that organizations like Food Dignity, which have not received LFPA funding, help his business by bringing his food to audiences at farmers markets he wouldn’t otherwise reach.
Food Dignity, a Northeast Pennsylvania-based agricultural nonprofit, connects small farms to farmers markets around the region. It runs on a donation-based system, where people can buy produce for free, depending on need.
Founder Clancy Harrison said Pennsylvania ran its LFPA funding based on the Pennsylvania Agricultural Surplus Program (PASS). Each state that received LFPA funding could choose how to distribute those funds, so other states may run their LFPA programs differently.
PASS is a statewide program that allows food banks to purchase produce from farmers.
Harrison was critical of both programs.
“[Those programs do not] cover the cost of the produce itself, which is an issue because this stuff isn't free for them to produce,” Harrison said.
She said she would rather see more federal and state funding go towards expanding the similarly named State Food Purchase Program (SFPP), which provides counties grants to purchase food for low income residents.
Besides issuing an appeal last month against the termination of Pennsylvania’s LFPA contract, Gov. Josh Shapiro has reiterated that his 2025-26 budget would increase funding to PASS and SFPP by $4 million each for a total of $8 million.
