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$13M for Colorado food banks, school meals canceled

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Chase Woodruff
(Colorado Newsline)

More than $13 million in U.S. Department of Agriculture funding meant to help Colorado food banks and schools purchase locally grown produce is the latest piece of federal funding to be abruptly cut off by the Trump administration.

Governor Jared Polis said Wednesday that the cuts would hurt farmers, “undermine food security and drive up costs.”

“By cutting this funding, the Trump administration is taking away healthy meals from school children and slashing contracts Colorado farmers depend on to support their businesses and workers,” Polis said in a statement. “Instead of helping communities put food on the table, this decision pulls resources from schools, food banks and Colorado families.”

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Colorado was due to receive $7.6 million for school districts and child care centers through the USDA’s Local Food for Schools and Child Care Agreement Program, and $5.5 million for food banks from the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program.

More than $1 billion in funding for the two programs, which were expanded under the Biden administration, is being canceled nationally. A USDA spokesperson said the programs “no longer effectuate the goals of the agency,” Politico reported.

The canceled food programs are the latest in a spree of federal spending cuts by the Trump administration and its so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, an effort spearheaded by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk. The administration’s slash-and-burn approach, which has included attempted shutdowns of congressionally established agencies and a freeze on certain federal funds that has persisted in defiance of court orders, runs contrary to long-settled separation-of-powers principles in the U.S. Constitution.

In recent years, food banks in Colorado and across the country have reported rising levels of food insecurity amid high inflation and the expiration of expanded benefits enacted at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 1 in 10 Coloradans lack reliable access to nutritious food, according to the Colorado Health Institute.

Mandy Nuku, executive director of the nonprofit Feeding Colorado, said the canceled USDA funding will only make the problem worse and will especially hurt smaller farms that often struggle to market the food they produce.

“At a time of significantly increased need for food bank services coupled with limited resources for the charitable food network and local producers, we are concerned and disheartened about the elimination of this program,” Nuku said. “An important source of support for our Colorado producers is gone, and a point of access to fresh, local foods for neighbors will no longer be available.”