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<\/p>\nProposed city budget cuts could impact food access programs across Austin. Organizations say less funding could mean fewer services for residents who rely on them.<\/p>\n
AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Several food access programs serving thousands of Austinites are facing possible funding reductions as the city of Austin prepares its next fiscal year budget. Organizations that provide fresh produce, home delivery and food pantry support said cuts could force them to scale back services.<\/p>\n
For a decade, Farmshare Austin said it has worked to connect fresh produce grown on its 13-acre farm with families experiencing food insecurity.<\/p>\n
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One of its programs, Fresh for Less, helps make produce more affordable by offering discounts and accepting SNAP benefits.<\/p>\n
Farmshare Austin Executive Director Andrea Abel said the program reaches tens of thousands of Austinites through mobile markets and home delivery services.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know that by increasing the amounts of healthy foods that we eat, particularly fresh fruits and vegetables, we help to decrease outcomes of chronic disease like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes,\u201d Abel said.<\/p>\n
Abel said Farmshare Austin is facing multiple proposed funding reductions, including a $50,000 cut to the Fresh for Less program along with additional cuts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition to the $50,000 reduction to our social service contract, we’re included in a line item that is being completely eliminated, which would be $255,000 a year,\u201d she said. \u201cSo we’re looking at over $300,000 in cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city of Austin is currently facing a projected budget deficit of up to $26 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Abel said losing funding would force Farmshare Austin to reduce some services, including mobile markets and home delivery. She said the cuts could have a greater impact in areas where residents already face barriers to accessing fresh food.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis would be devastating, because the ZIP codes that we are in are specifically identified as having the most barriers to healthy food access in Austin and Travis County,\u201d Abel said. \u201cSo that means no full-service grocery store or maybe just a convenience store.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farmshare Austin estimates the potential cuts could affect about 35,000 people who rely on its programs.<\/p>\n
Farmshare Austin is not the only organization facing potential funding reductions. According to the Central Texas Food Bank, the city is considering reducing or eliminating three programs, totaling about $266,000 in funding. Those programs include support for college food pantries, home delivery services for seniors and homebound Austinites, and food distribution to more than 90 partner organizations across Austin.<\/p>\n
The food bank said proposed city budget cuts could impact more than 370,000 Austin residents who received services through its programs this fiscal year.<\/p>\n
The Central Texas Food Bank sent KVUE the following statement:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Central Texas Food Bank recognizes that fiscal realities mean difficult decisions must be made as City Council and staff continue finalizing the budget. We also know that food insecurity in our region remains at elevated levels. The Central Texas Food Bank supports a budget process that takes into consideration the performance of investments made in social services contracts. Our organization has exceeded all deliverables for every program we operate in coordination with the city, and we are hopeful the final City of Austin budget will protect those critical services for our neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the city, Austin Public Health currently has two agreements that provide similar food access services and is proposing to eliminate the smaller of the two.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, both organizations said they hope city leaders reconsider before the budget is finalized.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you cut these services off now, you\u2019re just going to create additional costs in emergency healthcare, in pressure on food banks and food pantries,\u201d Abel said. \u201cAnd it really is a penny-wise, pound-foolish decision.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Proposed city budget cuts could impact food access programs across Austin. Organizations say less funding could mean fewer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-396967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}