Trump’s Aid Cuts Are Replacing Fresh Food With Junk

We cut the eggs in half so that it stretches. We used to give out a whole dozen of eggs. Now we cut the dozens in half so they each get a half a dozen. We’re in Georgia, where Jennifer Deal has been operating this food pantry for more than a decade. Now, for the first time, she’s running out of food. You’re welcome. There you go. The amount of people who need it here is up 40 percent compared to last year. —Thank you so much. —Yes, Ma’am. As inflation has gone up, more people in her community say they can’t afford groceries. For example, coffee. In three weeks, it went up seven dollars. The average cost of food in America is 28 percent higher today than it was in 2020 and for Jennifer, that means doing more with less. So this is where we keep our produce. We used to be able to give out a whole pack of lettuce, but now we have to break it down so that we can feed everybody. A few weeks ago, we ran out of food. Despite rising demand, the Trump administration has cut nearly a billion dollars in federal aid for programs that ensure low-income families are fed. Not having enough funding to know that I can feed all the people that need it. I think that’s frustrating and it’s scary. Food pantries where people can pick up food source much of their inventory from larger food banks that act as a wholesaler. The cuts have disrupted that supply chain. For decades, the federal government, through the U.S.D.A., has sent billions of dollars and hundreds of millions of pounds of food to food banks across the country. Private businesses and individuals also donate money and food, and farms sell food banks’ produce at a steep discount, like this box of fresh vegetables. In March, the Trump administration cut funding for a U.S.D.A. program that sent food from farms to low-income Americans, and it also canceled a pandemic-era aid program designed to make sure that food banks had fresh food. In a statement to The New York Times, the U.S.D.A. said the cuts were needed to correct what they described as a Biden-era slush fund. In May, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins defended the cuts in Congress. Our team has sought to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in all U.S.D.A. programs. Soon after, the U.S.D.A. announced more than $300 million in additional food aid spending. But food banks like this one in Atlanta, which sends food directly to pantries across Georgia, say it’s still not enough. We have to be creative and innovative and go out and find other sources of support to offset any changes that might happen at the federal level. At the Atlanta Community Food Bank, demand is up 70 percent from just three years ago. We would prefer it to be the reverse, where resources are going up and demand’s going down. Okay. Just take it and unload it and bring it back right here. Alrighty. All right, sweetheart. Have a happy Thanksgiving. You too. And thank you. Canned foods, things like that, aren’t as many as they used to be, as well as the meat. We used to get, I think, two to three sometimes. And sometimes it’s been down to one to none. Tamara Kuhlman has been unable to work since being diagnosed with cancer and Parkinson’s disease. She’s depended on this pantry to feed her family for the past few years. We rely on this. If we miss it, we wouldn’t eat. —Thank you so much. —You’re welcome. It hurts a little bit not to be able to give her fresh produce, fresh fruit, things that’s gonna help her heal in her journey. So we used to give out onions and apples and things like that, but now we’ve reverted to the junk food. Chips, candy, things that’s not, you know, a hundred percent nutritional. It’s not good for them, but it’s kind of this or starve. We need relief somewhere. We need something to give. We need to know that it’s gonna get better. And right now it doesn’t look — it looks like it’s getting worse. It’s just bleak. More cuts are coming next year. More than two million Americans are set to lose access to food stamps under the president’s new domestic policy agenda. The largest tax cut in American history, the largest spending cut, 1.7 trillion dollars. Meanwhile, Jennifer is bracing to feed even more hungry neighbors, many of whom she says voted for President Trump. A lot of people went by what Trump said. Now people want to change their mind and it’s too late. You know, we have to suffer the consequences. More people are going to depend on us, but we don’t have anyone to depend on to get the food from or to get the funding from.