Food banks across the country are facing a $500 million shortfall after the Trump administration cut aid to the Emergency Food Assistance Program through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). And in early March came word that $500 million for the Local Food Purchase Assistance program (LFPA) would also end. The LFPA is a federal program that gives food banks money to buy food from local farms and ranchers.
In Arkansas, more than 587,000 people are considered food insecure and many rely on snap benefits. Vince Hall is the chief of government relations with Feeding America, a nonprofit network of 200 food banks. He says they need more help. “Even a modest reduction in the SNAP program has enormous consequences for demand at food distributions that will break the food banks’ ability to serve every person.” Hall made his remarks on the Arkansas Public Radio news program Ozarks at Large through KUAF. According to the USDA, the national rate of food insecurity in 2023 stood at 13.5%, or more than 47 million people.
That rate is significantly higher than the previous year, when it stood at 12.8%. Regionally, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Texas all ranked above the national average for food insecurity. In fact, Arkansas has the highest rate of food insecurity in the entire country, with nearly 19% of households struggling to afford food, according to Feeding America.
