Michael Goldstick, of Guided By Mushrooms in New Lebanon, said local farmers have a little bit of time to plan around this change, as existing contracts will be funded through June.
“We invested, planned and grew for this program,” he said. “We appreciate the runway to work toward alternatives, a Plan B, but we’re disappointed that small farmers, hungry families and food banks will be impacted by this. And this is nationwide.”
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
In Ohio, the Ohio Association of Foodbanks was the administrator and contract manager of $26 million in funding during the program’s three-year life. The state food bank network said it worked with roughly 170 food aggregators — people cultivating produce or raising animals for food production — during the program’s span.
OAF Executive Director Joree Novotny said this program, branded in the Buckeye State as Ohio Community + Agriculture + Nutrition (Ohio CAN), brought in 4.6 million pounds of food last fiscal year. She’s not sure if the food bank will be able to replace that product during a time of already high food costs.
A USDA spokesperson told Politico in a statement about the termination of the program: “These programs, created under the former Administration via Executive authority, no longer effectuate the goals of the agency.”
Lovotny said Ohio CAN was an opportunity to support local, emerging family farms that wanted to stay in the food growing business and expand their market reach.
“The reality is, we’ll be looking at possibly taking hits in a lot of places. We’re certainly disappointed about the end of the program,” Novotny said. “This program was always going to require permanent funding authorization to continue with certainty and to give growers breathing room to be able to forecast, and make plans and make investments in their businesses.”
The Ohio Association of Foodbanks oversees 12 food bank locations across Ohio, including Foodbank, Inc. in Dayton.
Foodbank, Inc. CEO Lee Lauren Truesdale said her organization worked with small farming operations like Guided by Mushrooms or the Regenerative Farmers Collective in Greene County through the LFPA, which was designed to create opportunities for community partners to buy fresh food from local farmers at fair market value.
The food bank primarily purchased whole chickens and produce items through this fund — meat and vegetables and fruit are some of the most expensive items in a family’s food budget, Truesdale said.
“LFPA funds not only helped put food on the table for our food-insecure neighbors, but these funds helped sustain local food producers,” Truesdale said.
Tia Stuart is the coordinator of the Regenerative Farmers Collective, which provides training to aspiring farmers and is a participant in the LFPA program. The collective last year produced poultry and beef, as well as about 60,000 pounds of diversified food boxes packed with vegetables like peppers, tomatoes, squash and more.
Stuart called the LFPA a “dream come true” for up-and-coming farmers like the 15 involved in the local collective.
“It’s really disappointing for a lot of us small farmers, who were looking forward to having the funding to build our capacity,” Stuart said. “It’s difficult to build capacity when you don’t have a legacy farm, that infrastructure, in place. There’s a lot stacked up against farmers, and this program helped them build a customer base.”
She fears that the financial impact on the Dayton area could be resounding. Her collection of farmers, for example, will be looking elsewhere for customers and may have reduced buying power.
“We’re going to keep advocating for the farmers,” she said. “This program is widespread, and we need it.”
For Guided by Mushrooms, Goldstick said the New Lebanon-based business sent off 130 pounds of mushrooms per week to the region’s food bank. The business is looking to identify other buyers.
He said that sometimes Guided by Mushrooms would receive social media messages from people asking for advice on how to prepare mushrooms — ranging rom lion’s mane to blue oysters — that they received during food distributions.
“I think it’s really important to talk about the successes of this program,” he said. “And I’d love to see a similar plan, a different program in place that still links farmers to families. We’re hopeful that local mobilization will drive change.”
Truesdale said any funds change the way the region’s food bank can do business, with the loss in LFPA funds reducing buying power.
“I do want to ensure that our community knows that The Foodbank and our 119 partner agency food pantries will continue to show up and will continue to work to source a variety of healthy food options,” she said.
Local Food Purchase Assistance program, by the Numbers
170: Number of LFPA food aggregators who work with the Ohio Association of Foodbanks
12: Number of food banks in Ohio
4.6: The number of pounds, in millions, of food produced last year through LFPA
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