The Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA<\/a>) was established in 2021<\/a> as a response to the coronavirus pandemic by President Joe Biden\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n In the final full month of Biden\u2019s term, his administration agreed on the latest contract to renew the initiative. For Pennsylvania, it meant an additional three years and $13 million for the program.<\/p>\n The cancellation of LFPA<\/a> in March resulted in bipartisan pushback from lawmakers like Gov. Josh Shapiro<\/a>, all four chairs<\/a> of the General Assembly\u2019s agriculture committees (Republicans and Democrats), plus farmers and food banks, alike.<\/p>\n Since 2022, LFPA had provided nearly $30 million in funding to participating Pennsylvania farms to provide locally grown products to food banks, according to Shapiro\u2019s office. Nearly 190 farms and 13 regional food banks across the state participated in this program.<\/p>\n Now, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, which includes U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-8th District), have crafted legislation that could revive the intent of this program.<\/p>\n The Local Farmers Feeding Our Communities Act<\/a> would allow states, through USDA, to establish these cooperative agreements connecting farmers and producers with food distribution organizations, according to the authors of the proposal. As a result, funds will be used to purchase local, fresh, and minimally processed foods like seafood, meat, milk, cheese, eggs, fruit, and poultry. The bill<\/a> also sets aside a portion of these funds to purchase food specifically from small, midsize, beginning, and veteran farmers.<\/p>\n SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX<\/a><\/p>\n Bresnahan told the Capital-Star that there\u2019s \u201ccertainly some correlations\u201d between this proposal and the program established under the Biden administration.<\/p>\n In August, while attending his first Ag Progress Days at Penn State University as a member of Congress, Bresnahan said that agriculture is about a $65 million industry in his district, based in northeast Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n \u201cThe average farm in our district is 179 acres, with over 95% of them being family farms,\u201d Bresnahan said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea is we talk about hunger. We talk about the food security challenges, but sometimes we\u2019re not talking about the local farmers that produce this,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd this is a way that we can marry two of those different ideas together.\u201d<\/p>\n Chris Hoffman, president of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, is backing the effort.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that is just a miraculous program that we can take from the farms, go right into feeding our friends and neighbors who are in need,\u201d Hoffman said. \u201cIt\u2019s really, really serious when one of seven people go to bed hungry every night in Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so it\u2019s our job,\u201d he added. \u201cWe live in the land of plenty, and so we need to make sure we have food for everyone out there.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to the Farm Bureau\u2019s support, the bill is also backed by several other organizations including Feeding Pennsylvania, the National Milk Producers, and Save the Children.<\/p>\n Democrats and Republicans talk about LFPA contract cancellation differently<\/p>\n The effort to revive the program has earned support from both sides of the aisle, although Democrats and Republicans differ on why it met its end.\u00a0<\/p>\n Shapiro announced<\/a> in June at the Share Food Program\u00a0in Philadelphia that his administration filed a lawsuit against USDA over the cancellation.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m tired of waiting for someone to stand up for our farmers and our food banks. That task falls to us,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cThe USDA and the Trump administration ignored our farmers, and they ignored folks who are hungry here in Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n As of Oct. 30, there has not been a ruling.<\/p>\n U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME), one of the Democratic co-sponsors of the legislation, described<\/a> the decision by the USDA to cancel the contract as an action that \u201cpulled the rug out from under farmers and food banks.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Republicans aren\u2019t pointing the blame at Trump.<\/p>\n U.S. Rep. Glenn \u2018GT\u2019 Thompson (R-15th District) serves as the House Chair on the Committee on Agriculture.<\/p>\n A woman shops at the Feeding South Florida food pantry in Pembroke Park, Fla., this month. Food banks across the country are gearing up for massive demand from an interruption to federal food aid because of the government shutdown. (Photo by Joe Raedle\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n During a roundtable discussion during Ag Progress Days, Thompson promoted Bresnahan\u2019s proposal, but said the one established by the Biden administration was not authorized by Congress. He added it was \u201cno surprise\u201d that under an administration change, the program could be discontinued.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought they were really good ideas,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cI begged Secretary Vilsack, who was President Biden\u2019s secretary of agriculture, to work with Congress to bring us those proposals, to legislate them. And he refused.\u201d<\/p>\n Bresnahan said the cancellation of the contract is what inspired the bipartisan action to find a solution for a program that he thought, \u201cwas very efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAgain, I\u2019m not in the administration, and I\u2019m not sure how the executive branch sometimes decides what programs come and what programs go, but we thought this was something if you were to really hone in on the actual program, the Local Farmers Feeding Our Communities Act was exactly that,\u201d he told the Capital-Star.<\/p>\n In late August, Bresnahan led a roundtable discussion<\/a> on the proposal in his district at Brace\u2019s Orchard in Dallas, Luzerne County. He told the Capital-Star that 10% of the revenue, about 55,000 pounds of food at Brace\u2019s Orchard last year, was through LFPA.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we want to do is codify this and make it a reality in perpetuity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n What do the Food Banks think?<\/p>\n George Matysik is the executive director of Share Food Program<\/a> in Philadelphia, a hunger relief organization that serves the five county region in and around Philadelphia. Some 305,000 children across 800 schools are served daily through their work with the National School Lunch Program.<\/p>\n He said they participated in the LFPA program over the past few years as demand has increased.<\/p>\n Like others participating in the program, he found out in March when it was reported by national outlets like Politico<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a signed deal for this. This was a contract that we had with the USDA,\u201d he told the Capital-Star in an interview in September. \u201cWe had already put in orders with some of the local farmers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo, it wasn\u2019t just about the cancellation,\u201d he added. \u201cBut it was also just about how we found out, when we found out, no notice with a signed contract, all of that made it all the more challenging for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Matysik said the Share Food Program, at this time, has less resources than any time in recent memory, while they\u2019ve seen a 120% increase over the last three years for those coming to them for food assistance.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0afd8d06a1a4018406c12dcb0b62a7b6.jpeg\"\/)
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