The executive director of a food bank serving Lackawanna, Luzerne, Susquehanna and Wyoming counties is concerned about the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision to end two programs that allow schools and food banks to purchase food from local farmers and producers.
Meanwhile, school districts are monitoring whether a program funded by the USDA that provides vegetables to schools will be cut.
The Local Foods for Schools and Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement programs, both of which were created during the COVID-19 pandemic, provided more than $1 billion for schools and food banks.
About $660 million went to schools and child care centers, while $500 million was expected to go to food banks this year.
Show Caption
1 of 3
Expand
The state Department of Agriculture was awarded nearly $30 million from the USDA for the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement program and the expanded LFPA Plus program, and almost $7 million for the Local Foods for Schools program, according to figures from the USDA.
The CEO Weinberg Northeast Regional Food Bank received about $500,000 from the cooperative this fiscal year to buy produce and milk from local farmers and dairy producers, representing 10% of the food bank’s funding to purchase products. It doesn’t include food that is donated.
“It is a substantial resource that we use to buy fresh produce,” Executive Director Jennifer Warabak said.
With the cooperative ending, she said the food bank in Jenkins Twp. is figuring out different resources to provide healthy food to the roughly 300 member agencies in the four counties the food bank serves.
The food bank used the funding to purchase dairy and produce from about a dozen farmers and two dairies, most of which are in the counties served by the food bank, plus two in central Pennsylvania. The rest of the food is purchased in bulk.
Warabak said purchasing food locally boosts the local economy and employers.
“It puts money right back into the economy,” she said.
The program’s end comes at a time when the food bank continues to see demand. The food bank had a 23% increase in visits to the pantry from 2023 to 2024, Warabak said. It distributed nearly 18 million pounds of food last year.
“We are struggling with the sheer demand for food in comparison to what’s available,” she said. “So I think any resources that are removed from the charitable food system, it will have an impact. That is a direct impact on food banks, which then trickles down to our food pantries, our mobile food pantries, right down to the families that need the assistance the most.”
Warabak hopes a program similar to the LFPA will be included in a future farm bill because of how vital it is. The food bank will also continue advocating for the program.
She said the large volunteer base at the pantry allows people to see the need for food in the community.
“I think when you come to the food bank and you see what we have here and how we operate on a daily basis and you see the partners that just come in and out of here every day picking up their products, you really come to a realization that food insecurity is a real thing in Northeast Pennsylvania,” Warabak said.
Concern about cuts for produce
Several school districts in the county worry how potential cuts at the USDA could affect how they deliver fresh produce.
Lackawanna Trail School District Superintendent Matthew Rakauskas said the district received about $35,000 from the USDA’s Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program. The district also participates in the PA Beef for PA Schools program.
“Until more details of the program cuts come out, we are uncertain of the impact,” he said. “If these programs are cut, it would impact local beef and fresh produce offerings.”
Precious Gilliard, general manager at Aramark, which provides food service to the Scranton School District, said the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program gives students the opportunity to have food they wouldn’t get at home.
“The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program allows the food service department and the school district to work in conjunction to secure new and exciting fruits and vegetables for our students to taste three to four times weekly at no charge, while we keep food fun with educational handouts like fun fact sheets, a monthly calendar, interactive events with our on-site chef manager and ongoing tastings in our district,” she said. “If this program goes away it will make it more difficult to introduce our students to fruits and vegetables that they would not normally have.”
Originally Published: March 24, 2025 at 12:00 AM EDT