LOONEY, DUFF, MAHER OUTRAGED AS FEDERAL AGRICULTURE FOOD PURCHASING PROGRAMS CANCELED

“Harming American students, food banks and farmers at the same time”

Senate President Martin M. Looney (D-New Haven), Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk) and State Senator Ceci Maher (D-Wilton) were outraged this week as the United States Department of Agriculture announced its cancellation of a program supporting schools, food banks and farmers in Connecticut and nationally.

The cancellation involves programs that provided schools and food banks with funds to purchase locally-grown food from local farms and ranchers, representing $1 billion in federal spending. According to the School Nutrition Association, roughly $660 million supporting the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program has been canceled nationwide after being previously allocated. The Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program has also been cut.

According to the state Department of Education, that will represent the loss of about $5.6 million in future funding for fresh food in Connecticut schools and child care facilities, with about $1.8 million in existing funds still usable. In addition, the Department of Agriculture expects to lose $3.7 million in funding. The direct financial impact on food banks is not yet known.

“Cutting funds supporting hardworking Connecticut farmers is bad enough. Cutting funding for meals in schools and child care centers is even worse,” said Sen. Looney. “Like many decisions coming out of Washington since January 20, this is a short-sighted decision with real suffering inflicted on the American people. Farmers are already facing rapidly changing conditions, only to see another important source of funding now disappear. Students won’t be able to enjoy fresh, healthy foods in school. I’m puzzled at what sense this decision makes, if any, as I am appalled at the cruelty evident in such a policy.”

“It’s almost impressive, in a horrifying way, that the Trump Administration is harming American students, food banks and farmers, all at the same time,” said Sen. Duff. “These funds were already approved for use, making their cancellation simply cruel. People in our communities – young students and their teachers, local farmers, those in need – will struggle without this support. And all this for negligible savings at best; this program, which helped countless people, has a cost representing a rounding error in the federal budget. Is harming children and farmers making America great?”

“After years of discussing children’s nutrition, and extensive efforts to connect Connecticut children with healthy, fresh foods, it’s astonishing to discover the federal government actively working against those goals,” said Sen. Maher, Senate Chair of the Committee on Children. “Programs like Local Food for Schools are a lifeline for youth in communities across the state and provide financial opportunities for Connecticut farmers. To see them unceremoniously cut, with agriculture and children’s health and nutrition no longer a federal priority, is a travesty.”

USDA spokespersons said funding announced in October 2024 is no longer available, with previous agreements to be canceled after a 60-day notification period. They claimed the programs “no longer effectuate the goals of the agency.”

More than 40 states utilized the LFS program before its cancellation.