Reps. Cleaver, Pingree, Adams, McGovern, and 80+ House Democrats Condemn USDA for Canceling Programs that Feed Children, Support Local Farmers and Food Banks
(Kansas City, MO) – RealEstateRama – This week, U.S. Representatives Emanuel Cleaver, II (D-MO), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Alma Adams (D-NC), and James McGovern (D-MA), along with more than 80 House Democrats, condemned the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) decision to cancel two programs that help bolster local and regional food supply chains by purchasing food from American farmers and providing fresh, nutritious meals to local schools and food banks. In a letter to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, the lawmakers relayed concerns from local farmers, families, and food banks that the USDA’s decision to cancel federal funding for the Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) Cooperative Agreements for 2025, as well as the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program (LFS), will impact farmers across the country and take food off the table of American families and schoolchildren.
“At a time when farmers are facing increased input costs and significant uncertainty due to the indiscriminate funding freeze on certain USDA funds, and when grocery costs have not come down and more families are relying on food banks and school meals, it is reckless and cruel to cancel LFPA and LFS awards to states,” the lawmakers wrote.
These programs provided dedicated demand for local farmers’ products, helping to create local and regional infrastructure to get fruits and vegetables to schools, food banks, and new in 2025, childcare centers. Locally in the Kansas City region, these agreements supported the KC Food Hub farmer cooperative and brought healthy foods to the Blue Springs School District and the Lee’s Summit School District. Through these cooperative agreements, Missouri participants were scheduled to receive over $19 million in 2025, which was originally announced last fall. Because Missouri farmers made planting decisions based on last year’s announcement, many are now left hanging by the Trump Administration.
Last month, following the termination of a federal grant to the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council and the shutdown of a soybean research project in Missouri after the Trump Administration’s chaotic and harmful federal funding freeze, Congressman Cleaver warned of the impact the Administration’s executive actions are having on Missouri’s agricultural industry. Additionally, Cleaver has called on the president to permanently rescind the executive order levying a 25 percent blanket tariff on Canadian imports and a 10 percent tariff on imported Canadian oil. With Missouri currently selling more goods to Canada than to its next five largest foreign markets combined, any trade war with Canada, which will result in retaliatory tariffs and Canadian boycotts of American products, will harm the ability of Missouri farmers to sell their products at a fair price.
Find the official letter from lawmakers here.
Emanuel Cleaver, II is the U.S. Representative for Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes Kansas City, Independence, Lee’s Summit, Raytown, Grandview, Sugar Creek, Greenwood, Blue Springs, North Kansas City, Gladstone,?and Claycomo. He is a member of the exclusive House Financial Services Committee and Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance.
