By: Maria-Paula

The commonwealth of Virginia, through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has this week released more than $6 million for its food bank acquisition from local farmers to its food lacking populace. This follows months of delay as other states began using the same grant funds as early as March.

With an unclear cause of the delay in funds pay out, one speculated contributing factor for the slowdown was language in the budget. Legislative approval proved difficult as the Senate controlled by Democrats and the House controlled by Republicans failed to reach a compromise on amendments to the two-year budget.

Although the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) made the request for appropriation authority in January, the governor was barred from authorizing grant funds associated with the American Rescue Plan Act dollars after the commencement of the General Assembly session. The funds therefore had to be authorized as part of the budget amendment process, a process still under negotiation.

4P Foods, a company that distributes food from local and regional farmers and one of the grant recipients’ founder and CEO, Tom McDougall said they were staring down a scenario where the state has millions of dollars to buy food directly from small Virginian socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, and distribute to food insecure families. McDougall cited a legislative accident preventing the money from trickling down for the needy populations good.

Apart from announcing its cooperative agreement with Virginia in July 2022, the USDA through the Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) Cooperative Program availed up to $900 million in federal funding across the U.S. for state purchases of local and regional foods aiming to assist socially disadvantaged farmers and food relief programs and organizations.

VDACS estimated it would use the funding to buy food from 166 local farmers and distribute it to 164,000 individuals across the commonwealth at that time.

The commonwealth’s Department of Agriculture downplayed rising questions concerning the long gap in months between agreement with the federal government on its request to begin spending the money but instead provided a written statement following funds release.

“We are pleased to be able to extend the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement funding to Virginia Food banks and other organizations to improve food access in underserved communities. In addition, the funds help build and expand economic opportunities for Virginia producers,” the statement read.

The delay raised uncertainty to both farmers and grant recipients who had placed orders with farmers that were already making plans for the coming season but since funds could not be released through the General Assembly, grant recipient plans were postponed to months later.

McDougall highlighted a situation where another grant recipient had made an agreement with a local farmer to plant strawberries in the spring with the intention of shipping them in May with LFPA funds. The strawberries which were planted could not be sold off due to the standoff.

“We didn’t find out until late January that there was potentially a problem,” lamented McDougall.

The standoff prompted LFPA awardees to reach out to Governor Glenn Youngkin’s office for a possible authorization of the funds following adjournment of the session.

Youngkin last week signed off on appropriating the funds, leaving the language that required five working days to weigh in before they could be released by both the House and Senate appropriations committees. The five-day period ended on Wednesday, therefore allowing distribution of the money starting on Thursday.

The funds have come at a good time for Virginias food-insecure community, who lost income for food when Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) emergency allotments expired in February. Without the emergency allotments, eligible SNAP recipients have witnessed drastic cuts, contrary to maximum amounts of benefits received during the hard pandemic season according to Cassie Edner, an attorney with the Virginia Poverty Law Center.

“We’ve seen a lot of individuals that are 60 and above that went from $281 a month to $23 dollars a month. They’re calling us up in tears saying, ‘How can I afford my food? How can I afford rent?’ You have to choose sometimes, rent or food, you know, medications. It’s a hard choice,” said Edner.

A senior citizen, Dina Archer, who recently visited the Colonial Heights Food Pantry in Petersburg, said she only gets $23, a drop from receiving over $400 a month from SNAP before the unexpected end of the emergency allotments. She has depended on the assistance since losing her husband to COVID-19 several years ago.

“People shouldn’t have to feel embarrassed about this. I still have to spend money in the grocery store,” said Acher. “It’s not like you’re not going to go back to the grocery store, but at the food pantry, you get the opportunity for vitamins and minerals, all the things that you need instead of eating the same thing every day because you can’t afford it.”

The only full-time staff member at Colonial Heights Food Pantry, Warren Hammonds, has noted more demand since inflation started to spike last summer.

“I’ve had to search for emergency grants to cover costs of additional shelf-stable food that we have to have on hand for these vulnerable populations,” Hammonds said. “It’s been very demanding financially.”

The Virginia Department of Social Services reported, 900,313 including children in Virginia, benefited from SNAP in April 2023.

Virginia Federation of Food Banks through its spokesperson, Eddie Oliver said that the average household in Virginia lost $95 a month after emergency allotments ended. It is seen as the largest cut to the nutrition safety net in the commonwealth’s history.

“This is a massive amount of money that has suddenly dropped out of the program at a time when food prices are still very high. We have been eagerly anticipating the nutritious products that will be made available to our food bank network through the LFPA,” Oliver said in a statement on Friday. “The fresh produce and culturally familiar items we are expecting from our friends at 4P Foods will enable us to better serve low-income seniors and communities suffering from low food access. This support could not come at a more urgent time.”

Now that the federal funds have been released, some extra assistance will be available for the vulnerable and needy residents of Virginia.