{"id":242769,"date":"2026-07-14T02:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T02:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/242769\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T02:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T02:07:14","slug":"pennsylvania-budget-includes-10-million-to-help-farmers-recover-from-devastating-freeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/242769\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania budget includes $10 million to help farmers recover from devastating freeze"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fresh fruit continues to fly off the shelves at Cherry Hill Orchards in Pequea Township, Lancaster County, but much of it is coming from somewhere else.<\/p>\n

After April’s devastating freeze\u00a0<\/a>wiped out nearly all of the orchard’s fruit crops, owner Corey McCleaf has been forced to bring in peaches from South Carolina and other fruit to keep the business running.<\/p>\n

McCleaf is one of many growers across Pennsylvania impacted by the late-season frost, which is estimated to have caused up to $200 million in lost fruit sales statewide.<\/p>\n

“I think there’s going to be some people that may not make it just because there is zero income for them without some help, because of just being a producer and not having anything to back them up,” McCleaf said.<\/p>\n

Go deeper with Yahoo Scout<\/p>\n

Gov. Josh Shapiro visited Cherry Hill Orchards in May and pledged to help fruit growers recover. That promise took a step forward after Shapiro signed Pennsylvania’s 2026-27 state budget into law Sunday night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The budget includes $10 million in funding for growers who lost crops during the April freeze.<\/p>\n

“We all heard firsthand from these growers who expect to lose about 100% of their fruit crops for the entire season. They don’t know how they’re going to feed their own families, and yet we all found a way to come together to help them in their time of need,” Shapiro said.<\/p>\n

While the state funding will provide immediate assistance, growers say additional federal aid will be critical to the industry’s recovery. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has also moved to streamline crop insurance assistance for affected growers.<\/p>\n

McCleaf said Shapiro personally called him Sunday to let him know the funding had been included in the budget.<\/p>\n

“The rapid response that we got in two and a half months to be able to have a little bit of money means there’ll be a little bit of help,” McCleaf said. “It’s a great start for what we need, and hopefully maybe the federal government will have something.”<\/p>\n

McCleaf said the state funding is an important first step as fruit growers across Pennsylvania continue working to recover from one of the most damaging freezes the industry has faced in years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresh fruit continues to fly off the shelves at Cherry Hill Orchards in Pequea Township, Lancaster County, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[83669,104099,104101,104100,33,3685,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-242769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-cherry-hill-orchards","tag-corey-mccleaf","tag-fruit-crops","tag-fruit-growers","tag-josh-shapiro","tag-lancaster-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}