Cuts at the USDA are impacting local farmers and food pantries across the Miami Valley.
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As previously reported by News Center 7 at 6 p.m., a farmer in New Lebanon says the cuts to the Local Food Purchase Assistance program will impact their business and low income families.
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“Do note that a lot of the people making these decisions do not know what it’s like to be hungry,” Amy Cox with Guided by Mushrooms said.
The USDA announced the “[Local Food Purchase Assistance] will now be sunsetted at the end of the performance period, making a return to long-term, fiscally responsible initiatives.”
The Ohio Association of Foodbanks says local producers, like Guided by Mushrooms, will feel the brunt of these cuts.
“We don’t want to, obviously, fire anybody. So, we’re already looking at new markets. I feel confident that we will be able to recover, it’ll just take us a little bit,” Cox said.
Guided by Mushrooms is an indoor farm with nine employees. According to Audra Sparks, they produce a thousand pounds of mushrooms per week, and 130 pounds for food pantries.
It’s Sparks’ hope that the USDA will create another program that connects local producers to food pantries, to help families.
“We want to grow, we want to hire more people, we want to be able to feed more people,” Sparks said. “So hopefully we can get another program set up in not too long.”
Guided by Mushrooms is making sure their 130 pounds of extra mushrooms will not go to waste, they plan to turn it into spice blends or be able to sell to a new market.
“Not only will people in urban areas suffer because they won’t have as much access to food, people in rural areas suffer from [loss of] employment opportunities,” Cox said.
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