Virginia lawmakers push back at Trump USDA over $500M in food bank cuts

A bipartisan group of Virginia lawmakers is pushing back against the Trump USDA’s move to cancel $500 million in funding for food banks.

Not surprisingly, the USDA is not commenting publicly on the cancellation of previously-approved funding through The Emergency Food Assistance Program, which comes on top of the decision handed down from the Trump/Musk DOGE to cancel two Biden-era programs – the Local Foods for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program – that provided more than $1 billion nationally for schools and food banks to purchase food from local farmers.

The latest attack on food banks will impact more than 400 pantries and food delivery organizations across the Commonwealth.

“Through TEFAP, USDA purchases nutritious commodity food from growers and producers, which is then provided to state agencies. Those agencies then deliver that food to distributers, including food banks and community organizations at no cost,” a group of Virginia lawmakers led by U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both D-Va., wrote in a letter to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins.

“More than 400 local pantries, including many faith-based partners from Hampton Roads to Southwest Virginia, distribute the food to eligible low-income recipients who typically do not qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and have few alternatives to turn to for help,” the lawmakers wrote.

Also signing onto the letter were U.S. House Democrats Don Beyer, Gerry Connolly, Jennifer McClellan, Bobby Scott, Suhas Subramanyam and Eugene Vindman, and U.S. House Republicans Morgan Griffith, Morgan Griffith and Rob Wittman.

The names missing from the list: MAGA congressman Ben Cline and John McGuire, who we have to thus presume are good with cutting federal funds for food banks.