MISSOULA - The Montana Food Bank Network supplies food to more than 170 food banks and pantries statewide, distributing millions of pounds of food each year to cities, rural areas, and reservations.
The network depends on funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to purchase nutritious food for families in Montana.
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However, earlier this month, the news grew grim as the Department of Government Efficiency began trimming the federal budget, placing food programs in jeopardy.
Pallets of pork and pounds of potatoes are set to be dispatched to feed people in every corner of the state at the Montana Food Bank Network distribution center in Missoula.
“We distribute about 16 to 18 million pounds of food here each year.” said Montana Food Bank Network CEO Gayle Carlson.
But this year is different. The USDA abruptly canceled part of the Emergency Food Assistance Program — specifically the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC).
“We have not experienced cancellations at this level,” Carlson said.
The cancellation means Montana will lose more than 300,000 pounds of food — worth more than $400,000 — which was scheduled to arrive at the distribution center.
“I think we saw this coming,” Carlson said. “They started eliminating some school feeding programs and other federal assistance programs, so we were kind of waiting for this to happen, but we were really hoping they would preserve the assistance to our communities.”
CCC funds are allocated to the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services from the USDA, and a portion is directed to the Montana Food Bank Network.
The network supports 171 food banks and pantries statewide, with more than 70 of those centers qualifying for CCC assistance.
They specifically rely on high-value nutritional foods such as milk, chicken, eggs, and cheese to meet local needs.
“This cancellation of about 300,000 pounds represents about 10 percent of what we ordinarily receive each year,” Carlson said. “This figure does not include the items that are currently on pause, and we don’t yet know what that will entail.”
She emphasized that the impact of these losses will resonate across all demographics in Montana.
“It affects everyone, from reservations to rural and urban communities," Carlson noted. "This is food we now need to find elsewhere in our network to supplement the loss of over $400,000 in food this year.”
Carlson noted that food banks across the state have already faced challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, economic downturns, and government shutdowns.
They have turned to local supporters and foundations to help fill the gaps when funding is low and demand is high.
However, some advocates fear this might be just the beginning of lean times for food assistance in Montana.
“And I don’t think, unfortunately, this is going to be the end of the cuts,” Carlson said. “This is just one avenue of TEFAP that has been restricted, and we don’t know what’s going to happen to the remaining funding sources.”
The goal remains to never turn anyone away from the food assistance program, but the quantity available may not match the regular supply.
