Hudson Valley Food Bank suffers shortage due to $1 billion in USDA food program cuts
Food Bank Agency Services Coordinator Kerri Fenton Foley has been notifying the food bank's partners about the reduction in food aid.
Local food banks and their clients are facing a crisis due to deep federal cuts that are leaving their shelves empty.
Staff at the mid-Hudson region's food distribution hub - The Food Bank of the Hudson Valley - said they are already noticing a difference and sending out less food to each of the local food pantries they supply.
Food bank leaders said 27 truckloads of fresh food have been canceled so far this year because of the USDA's 49% reduction of its emergency food assistance program, which equals about a $1 billion cut.
Officials said the 27 truckloads would have contained about a million pounds of food.
Food Bank Agency Services Coordinator Kerri Fenton Foley has been notifying the food bank's partners about the reduction in food aid.
It pains her, especially, since she previously had to rely on food pantries.
A bone infection once put her out of work for 18 months, a major challenge for a single mother of four.
"I reach out to our partners to let them know exactly what they're not going to have," she said. "I'm lucky to have a community around me who supported me, but also was great full I was able to access from a local food pantry."
Foley joined Rep. Pat Ryan and other officials for a press conference at food bank headquarters Monday to rally the community to lobby the USDA to fix the new funding gap.
Food bank leaders said they provided each local food-insecure resident 48 meals last year.
This year, they will provide about 25 meals per person if the sudden shortfall is not addressed.
"[It] will result in 2 million fewer meals for those 800 thousand people and in my district," Ryan said. That's about 120 thousand recipients."
Food bank leaders and their partners are now lobbying state lawmakers to find a way to fill the gap until a solution can be reached at the federal level.
USDA media representatives have not yet responded to News 12's requests for comment.
