A community garden based in New Albany is one of several farms in Ohio that will miss out on thousands of dollars in federal funds after President Donald Trump's U.S. Department of Agriculture canceled a set of grants that allows food banks to buy food directly from local farms, ranchers and producers.
This funding was all through the USDA's Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement, which dispersed about $420 million in funding. President Joe Biden's administration awarded funding last year to the Ohio Community, Agriculture and Nutrition program, which gave some funds to the Ohio Association of Food Banks. From there, money was dispersed to farms and organizations like The Garden for All.
Now it's the latest casualty in sweeping funding cuts the Trump Administration has made.
The Garden for All first opened in 2020 and has gradually grown to produce 14,000 pounds of vegetables, fruits and flowers as of last year with plans to more than double that total this year. They were set to get $25,000 from the canceled funding, but now have a hole to fill in their budget.
A USDA spokesperson said in an email to KOSU in Oklahoma that the department provided notice to territories, states and tribal governments that the programs are no longer available and the agreements will be terminated 60 days after the notification.
“These programs, created under the former Administration via Executive authority, no longer effectuate the goals of the agency,” the spokesperson wrote.
Reverend Catherine Duffy with St. Patrick's Episcopal Church in Dublin helps run the garden at All Saints Episcopal Church in New Albany. She told WOSU having holes in their budget hurts their organization, but it also tries to address an increase in hunger in central Ohio.
"Because we give 100% of what we grow to the food pantries, whatever we don't have in revenue is just produce that we don't get to give to the pantry. It impacts hungry people in Ohio," Duffy said.
The funds may hamper their goal of producing 35,000 pounds of produce this year and a potential of 125,000 pounds or more once the farm is fully operational in a few years.
Duffy said this will not only hurt hungry people, but also farmers who make a living off of their produce now that the government broke this promise. Duffy and her husband and co-founder Shawn Duffy don't take a salary from the organization, but farmers who also benefit from these funds, often using them to give away their surplus produce.
"I think a lot about the farmers who do make a living farming and who also are feeling the pinch of not having that funding as well," Duffy said. "If we don't make up that funding somewhere else, then we don't feed people. And that's really the bottom line."
Despite this hurting their plans for expansion, Duffy wants people to know the organization itself will be okay. They plan to try and make up for the loss of funding.
"I want people to know, I want our donors to know and I want our volunteers to know that the garden is not gonna go under. We are going to be okay," Duffy said.
