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Tonight
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Volunteers load up cars with food during Facing Hunger Foodbank's mobile distribution outside of Raceland Christian Church in Kentucky on Wednesday morning April 2, 2025.
Volunteers load up cars with food during Facing Hunger Foodbank's mobile distribution outside of Raceland Christian Church in Kentucky on Wednesday morning April 2, 2025.
Food banks provide a mix of fresh and canned foods to people who otherwise would have trouble affording it. But recently orders placed by some food banks have been canceled because cost cutters in the Trump administration were shutting down programs begun in the Biden administration.
SNAP officials want people who need help obtaining food to eat less junk food and more healthy food, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture is cutting back on the amount of healthy food it makes available to those people.
In some universe, that probably makes sense. But why cancel orders for food that local food banks had planned to receive and distribute?
Such is the tale that has unfolded in the past few days in the region as Huntington-based Facing Hunger Foodbank found itself short of cheese, milk and other staples.
Facing Hunger Foodbank CEO Cyndi Kirkhart told The Herald-Dispatch reporter Katelyn Aluise that orders initially showing up had been listed as being canceled; they had been created but not yet purchased. Now, she said, truckloads are being canceled when money had already been spent. The purchased loads included perishables such as cube cheese and fresh fruit. That is food that could go to waste instead of feeding people in need, Kirkhart said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture replied to AluiseƵs inquiries with an email that said in part, ƵThe Biden Administration inflated statutory programs with Commodity Credit Corporation dollars without any plans for long-term solutions, and even in 2024, used the pandemic as a reason to make funding announcements.Ƶ
That makes sense in the long term, but people are hungry in the short term.
This is one of those things that seems logical at the national level but ends up hurting people at the local level. Maybe eliminating Biden-era spending and practices was justified, but the results affect innocent parties. Cutting supplies off suddenly with little to no warning doesnƵt help people at the local level who plan for a certain amount of food to receive and distribute, and it certainly doesnƵt help people receiving that food to plan, either.
According to data from Feeding America, 1 in 7 people in West Virginia are facing hunger.
ƵPeople will go hungry, and at a time where the demand will go up, what will keep us up at night is the fact that we are not even going to be able to provide a minimum amount of food with a guarantee that weƵll have it without our partners really stepping up and helping us overcome these deficits,Ƶ Kirkhart told Aluise. ƵThat is a pretty heavy load to carry.Ƶ
