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The Tarrant Area Food Bank (TAFB) and Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) are fighting against state budget cuts that could result in reduced funding for local food banks, including a grant that aids in providing fresh produce to people in need.
It started with Gov. Greg Abbott’s request for state agencies to cut budgets by 5% while Texas grapples with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some agencies, such as the Department of Public Safety and Texas Department of State Health Services, received an exemption from the budget cuts.
The Texas Department of Agriculture, however, did not; and since much of the agency’s funding comes from fees, the only areas left to make budget cuts were in feeding programs, rural hospitals (which are overseen by the TDA), and grants for food banks — this includes a 41% cut to the Surplus Agricultural Products Grant, which provides charitable organizations with excess produce from Texas farmers who would otherwise be discarding the unsellable fruits and vegetables into a landfill.
Cutting this grant will be particularly detrimental for the people served by the Tarrant Area Food Bank, says TAFB president and CEO Julie Butner. Food distribution in Texas will reduce by nearly 20 million pounds — which translates to 17 million meals lost across the state.
Pretty bad timing, Butner says, when TAFB is seeing an approximately 50% – 55% increase in the number of people in need as a result of the pandemic.
“[The Surplus Agricultural Products Grant] is a win for the farmers, it’s a win for the environment, and it’s a win for people who are hungry right now,” she says. “It’s just not a good time for the state to be cutting a program that food banks are dependent on.”
The TDA is currently fighting for its own exemption from the budget cuts; but should the cuts be made, the agency is also asking the Legislature to restore the money that will be lost. Additionally, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller says he had sent a letter to Gov. Abbott regarding $2 billion of unspent CARES Act funding, asking if some of the money could be set aside for rural hospitals and food banks before the funds expired Dec. 30.
“We never heard back from him … I know the food banks didn’t get the money,” Miller says.
Still, while the TDA recommends individuals reach out to legislative officials and urge them not to follow through with cuts, the agency expects the Legislature to make a favorable decision.
“I doubt very seriously that any legislator wants to go back home and campaign saying they cut food bank money or cut rural hospitals or home-delivered meals,” Miller says. “I just don’t expect them to do that.”
Both parties should know the Legislature’s decision when its 87th regular session finishes at the end of May.
