The U.S. Department of Agriculture is ending two national programs that help food banks and schools in Maine — and around the country — purchase produce from local farmers.
USDA told Maine officials and partners late last week that it has terminated the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program. It helped Good Shepherd Food Bank buy produce from about 100 Maine farmers, which is then distributed to local food banks around the state.
"That program is incredibly important to the state of Maine, both in food today — food that we source and distribute today — and in food tomorrow, which is the economic viability for those 100 farmers and for our partner agencies to experience fresh, nutritious produce," said Good Shepherd President Heather Paquette.
At the same time, Paquette said the food bank recently learned that USDA will stop delivering about 1 million pounds of food through the Emergency Food Assistance Program to Maine. Those deliveries are on hold for Good Shepherd — and food banks around the country — through at least June.
Paquette said the USDA delivery represented about 20% of food that Good Shepherd moves around the state.
The cuts — both to government food deliveries and to funds that Good Shepherd used to buy local produce — are concerning, Paquette said, because more Mainers are experiencing food insecurity.
"Our need is up every year," she said. "This year we distributed 10% more food cases than we distributed the year before that, and that year was 10% over the [prior] year. So we're experiencing double-digit need increase in the state of Maine."
A spokesperson for the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry said the state received about $1.3 million for the Local Food Purchase Assistance program.
USDA has also terminated the Local Food for Schools program, which provided more than $720,000 last year to Maine schools. Schools used those funds to buy food directly from local farmers to serve in their cafeterias.
The program provided a big boost to the state's farmers, because more than 100,000 students eat at Maine schools every day, said Anna Korsen of the food security non-profit Full Plates Full Potential.
"That has a huge impact on local economies, on small farms, and it's just better for kids," she said. "The food's healthier, they're getting fresh, local foods in the school cafeteria."
A spokesperson for Maine's Department of Education said the state was expected to receive nearly $2.8 million for the Local Food for Schools program over the next three years. The funding was supposed to be disbursed later this spring.
Maine still has a statewide local food purchasing program for schools. But Korsen said the federal program provided more purchasing power for Maine schools. In 2023 before Maine received federal LFS funding, schools in the Pine Tree State spent just more than $168,000 on local food, Korsen said.
These USDA programmatic cuts are separate from those that the department is making at the University of Maine System. And unlike those impacting UMaine, the termination of USDA's local purchasing programs affects food banks and schools around the country.
The University of Maine is a land-grant institution and received nearly $30 million last year in USDA funding, primarily for research. School officials announced Tuesday that USDA is evaluating the further action against the university system for possible violations of Title VI and Title IX, and that payments to UMaine have been paused.
