Trump administration ends programs funding local farm food for Michigan school meals

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced $1.13 billion in funding last year for a pair of programs to help schools, child care centers, and food banks obtain locally sourced foods. After schools and other facilities had begun working out arrangements with local farmers, President Donald Trump’s administration informed them on March 7 that the programs had been canceled, according to Politico.

A USDA spokesperson told the outlet that the $660 million Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program and the $472 million Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program would be canceled because “these programs, created under the former Administration via Executive authority, no longer effectuate the goals of the agency.”

Michigan had been set to receive about $18 million in fiscal year 2025 from the Local Food for Schools program and about $16 million from the Local Food Purchase Assistance program.

The USDA did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins told Fox News on March 11 that these were “COVID-era programs” and were not reaching their intended targets, saying that the Biden administration was “trying to spend more and more money”: “Right now, from what we are viewing, that program was nonessential, that it was a new program, and that it was an effort by the Left to continue spending taxpayer dollars that were not necessary.”

Carolyn Thomas is the professional development chair of the School Nutrition Association of Michigan, a nonprofit coalition of school nutrition professionals, and a child nutritional consultant for the Macomb Intermediate School District, which serves schools in Macomb and St. Clair counties. In a phone interview, she raved about the LFS program: “It has actually been nothing short of a win-win situation for everyone, because we have been able to expand our network of farms that we can source our local produce from, because we’ve been able to have ongoing relationships with these farmers.”

The schools in Macomb’s school districts used some of the LFS funds to purchase locally grown lettuce, squash, vegetables, and Michigan cherries. Local apples have been a particular favorite, Thomas said: “We’ve been able to showcase that it goes straight from the farmer to our schools and right to your child. Many of the children recognize the name of the farm. They recognize the label of the farm. They’ve been there on a field trip or they’ve been there with their families, so they get excited when they see things like that.”

Blake Farms in Southeast Michigan may be best known for its cider mill, but it has also been supplying Macomb area schools with fresh apples from its Armada orchard for about five years under the LFS program, said manager Lonnie Decker.

Decker said that not only would the cuts take away a consistent revenue stream for Blake Farms and other farmers who sell their produce to schools, but they would also deprive students of access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

“The biggest loser is the children. They are going to take the biggest loss because there’s so much fresh vegetables and fresh produce that these farmers could be producing and could be brought into their schools, different things that they’re not used to trying,” Decker said. “It could be so many different options. But unfortunately, without the program, there’s no way to do this.”

Thomas said the USDA’s cuts “will prevent some of our school districts from being able to continue to purchase, at the level that they have been, without that support. So the farmers lose, our economy loses, but most of all, the students will lose some of that local produce.”

Replacing the cut funds will be a challenge for schools already working on a tight budget, Thomas said. “The impact is going to be felt. It actually will be felt quite deeply in those schools that don’t have the financial capacity to support it. And there are many schools that are relying on these funds to be able to do this.”

Michigan Democratic Sens. Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin, along with 29 Democratic colleagues, urged Rollins to restore the programs in a March 14 letter.

“We ask that you reverse the cancellation,” they said. “We have grave concerns that the cancellation … poses extreme harm to producers and communities in every state across the country. At a time of uncertainty in farm country, farmers need every opportunity to be able to expand market access for their products.”

The elimination of the programs comes as Congress is considering massive cuts to safety net programs. The Republican majority in the House of Representatives passed a budget resolution on Feb. 25 that requires at least $230 billion in cuts to programs that are under the jurisdiction of the Committee on Agriculture for fiscal years 2025 through 2033.

In January, Politico published a document circulated by House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-TX) listing possible spending cuts to offset President Donald Trump’s proposed tax cuts and spending priorities. Among the items on the list was $3 billion in cuts to the Community Eligibility Provision that allows many school systems to offer free meals to all students.

Another possible measure on the list is the requirement that all kids receiving free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch in schools provide documentation to prove need. Such a measure, Arrington estimated, would save $9 billion.

According to a fact sheet published by the nonprofit Food Research & Action Center, Arrington’s proposed cuts would kick 1,327 Michigan schools out of the Community Eligibility Provision program, affecting more than 503,000 students.

“We do have the rising cost of food. As everyone knows, it isn’t just eggs that are going up. It’s everything,” Thomas said. “We’ve had almost a 10% increase in the cost of lunch from last school year to this school year, and last school year we saw a 9% increase. So we’ve got a lot of challenges that are facing our operations, and it would be detrimental all the way around if these programs were taken away.”