community-based organizations,” says Sara Cross, community food systems organizer at Oregon Food Bank. “This support has reached about 280 producers statewide — from the coast to Eastern Oregon—including Indigenous and Native producers, Black and brown farmers, rural and woman-owned businesses. Ending this funding means losing momentum on community-led solutions that strengthen both our economy and our shared food security.” When asked for solutions to fill that gap, a USDA spokesperson offered this: “The Biden Administration inflated statutory programs with Commodity Credit Corporation dollars without any plans for long-term solutions, and even in 2024, used the pandemic as a reason to make funding announcements. And while the Biden-era TEFAP slush fund was terminated, the program continues to operate uninterrupted, as originally intended by Congress, with more than $298 million spent in recent months to connect families with food.” This billion-dollar-shortfall may be devastating in the short term, but it is small potatoes compared to what the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill will do to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office predicts that upcoming changes to SNAP benefits, like additional work requirements, will reduce participation by roughly 2.4 million people in an average month over the next 10 years. The One Big Beautiful Bill also caps annual increases to benefits, effectively reducing them for everyone left participating. According to Feeding America, a national network of food-assistance programs, those reductions could eliminate the equivalent of between six and nine billion meals annually. Couple that with reductions in Medicaid—89% of SNAP households in Oregon are also on Medicaid —and food banks across the state are gearing up for an influx of need. “There’s no playbook for this kind of uncertainty,” says Carolyn Stein, executive director at FOOD for Lane County. Yet play they must. More than 740,000 Oregonians use SNAP, and Stein reports that one in five people in rural communities depend on the service. Stein also points to an expected ripple effect across the economy, referencing a study that found that every dollar in federally funded SNAP benefits generates between $1.50 and $1.80 in economic activity. Yet, as of this moment, FOOD for Lane County remains relatively well positioned. It already partners with local retailers and institutions like the University of Oregon. The organization also has two gardens from which it grows and distributes several hundred thousand pounds of food per year. In addition, FOOD for Lane County receives grant funds through its two local Coordinated Care Organizations, PacificSource and Trillium Community Health Plan. “This money will allow us to purchase some level of food for the next two years. That’s great news,” says Stein, before acknowledging that the One Big Beautiful Bill is bound to affect these Medicaid providers. FOOD-RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS throughout the state continue to live with this uncertainty while planning for the future. Food Share of Lincoln County just won a three-year, $60,000a-year grant from Roundhouse Foundation to purchase food. While the relief is welcome, the organization still gets calls from local programs looking for food. Unfortunately, Mitchell has to turn them down. “It’s hard for me to say we can’t onboard a new program, but we can’t,” she laments. Still Mitchell continues to move forward. Last year Food Share of Lincoln County purchased a new, long-term home/warehouse that more than doubles its space. The new location includes more freezers and coolers, allowing the organization to do more. “For the last five to 10 years, we have been focused on bringing in more fresh, healthy foods,” Mitchell says, “but limited space meant we had to turn some of our allocated and donated shipments away. Our new location will allow us to accept more perishables and dry goods and distribute bigger volumes of food.” After raising about $3 million for renovations and repairs, of course. Mitchell predicts the entire fundraising process will take about three years, with a ribbon cutting expected in early 2028, “unless there’s a miracle.” (We’re looking at you, MacKenzie Scott.) needs. “I had someone with celiac disease tell me they used to only eat every three days because no one could accommodate their condition,” says Lift UP executive director Stephanie Barr. Like all food banks, pantries and food- assistance organizations, Lift UP is seeing increased need. The organization grew 60% in the last three years in terms of people served and pounds of food distributed. “It’s been absolutely wild!” exclaims CaSaundra Johnson, Lift UP’s development manager. In the face of all the growth, Lift UP felt this year’s federal freezes and cuts acutely and immediately. “We anticipated a 20% decrease from Oregon Food Bank,” says Barr, predicting that shortfalls would mostly affect fresh produce, dairy and meat, which she says are reliably the “hardest commodities to come by.” That 20% cut actually turned out to be 50%, trimming its 10,000 pounds of food delivered twice a week from Oregon Food Bank in half. Those cuts came to programs in the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), a federally owned and operated entity founded to support domestic agriculture. In April USDA Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins approved $1 billion in cutbacks to CCC programs. About half of the cuts, $500 million, hit The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). The rest slashed the Local Food Purchase Assistance program (LFPA), which allows food banks to buy food from local farmers and ranchers. Both of those $500 million investments were made late in the Biden administration. “The Local Food Purchase Assistance program has been a lifeline for communities across Oregon, investing nearly $7 million over three years in producers, food hubs and Carolyn Stein is executive director at FOOD for Lane County JASON E. KAPLAN 32
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