Upper Valley school districts will no longer receive funding through two federal programs meant to help districts purchase food from area farmers. 

Earlier this month, the United States Department of Agriculture, or USDA, pulled back $1.2 million awarded to Vermont through its Local Food for Schools and Child Care program and $498,000 through its Local Food Purchase Assistance program, according to a March 13 news release from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets.

“The news that the additional funds have been pulled back by USDA comes as a huge disappointment — for Vermont farms, schools, early childhood programs, and organizations focused on feeding their communities,” according to the release. 

“These funds have supported farms and organizations’ capacity to buoy their communities through post-COVID difficulties and multiple natural disasters,” the state added. “These funds have increased resilience across many of Vermont’s diverse communities not just in supply chains, but in connecting communities to each other and to nourishing food.”

About $994,200 of the funds the USDA cut was to go to school districts to purchase food from farmers and $277,850 was slated for early child care centers. Other funding was set for “food access projects,” including free CSA shares and food pantries, all tasked with purchasing food from farmers across Vermont.

“One hundred percent of the $1.2 million was dedicated to food purchases, and would have gone directly into the hands of Vermont farmers and producers,” according to a presentation from the Vermont Farm to School and Early Childhood Network, which held a Zoom meeting Wednesday to discuss the impact of the cuts. The call included farmers, as well as representatives from food hubs and other organizations that will be affected by the cuts.

“Every dollar spent on local food generates an additional $1.60 in economic activity for Vermont,” according to the network. “This funding would have benefited farmers, food hubs, distributors, local processors, and rural communities, keeping money circulating in our state’s food economy.” 

From 2022 to 2024, Vermont received $1.35 million for local food purchasing programs, according to the release from the state agriculture  department. More than 100 farms around the state benefited from those purchases.

During the 2024 fiscal year, the White River Valley Supervisory Union, which includes schools in Bethel, Royalton, Sharon, Strafford and Tunbridge, received $4,700 in local produce and meats through the program, said Mischa Johnson, food service director.

While that made up a small portion of the $1.3 million budget for the supervisory union’s child nutrition program, it did help the district’s eight schools to obtain more produce from local farmers.

Local food often costs more than food from national distributors, said Francey Slater, the supervisory union’s farm to school coordinator.

“These funds allowed us to expand our local food (purchases) because it’s dollars that aren’t coming out of our local budget,” she said.

The supervisory union was slated to receive roughly $20,000 of food through Food Connects, a Brattleboro-based food hub that uses the USDA funding to purchase food from farmers and distribute it to school nutrition programs. The district did not include that money in its nutrition budget, as the funding had not been allocated by the state yet, said Tara Weatherell, business manager, for the White River Valley Supervisory Union.

“We’re still going to purchase local food,” Weatherell said. “The federal cuts don’t change that.”

Around 15% of the supervisory union’s food is from local farmers, Johnson, the food services director, said. The supervisory union’s farm to school program also receives funding through state programs and local taxpayers, as part of the general fund budget. 

The Mountain Views Supervisory Union, which includes Barnard, Bridgewater, Pomfret and Woodstock, does not use federal money for its farm to school program, said James Fenn, director of finance and operations. “We do receive a state incentive which annually is based on local purchases,” Fenn wrote in an email. “It is my understanding that the state program will not be impacted by these cuts. If the state decides to not fund their local food program we will have a revenue shortfall of about $35,000 beginning in FY27.”

Cameron Huftalen is a project manager for food & farm program started by Vital Communities, a White River Junction-based nonprofit organization that supports housing, transportation, climate and food projects in the Upper Valley. Huftalen has been working on a program that helps early child care providers purchase local food in bulk and, while the USDA funding for early child care programs was not vast, it would have helped reduce local food costs. It was also to be the first time that early child care programs would be included in the funding, in the past it was only K-12 programs, said Huftalen.

“It just would have made it easier for them to purchase food or a quality of food they feel better about serving,” Huftalen said.

Tammie Hazlett, a licensed home child care provider in Thetford, provides breakfast, lunch and a snack to the three children, ages 1 and younger in her program. While she does receive some federal reimbursement “it doesn't begin to cover what I purchase,” she said.

Hazlett is currently part of a pilot program with other early child care providers to purchase food in bulk.

“I know I can't afford to buy in bulk and then have food go to waste because the children can't eat it fast enough,” Hazlett said.

If they had received USDA funding to put toward local food, some child care providers said they wanted to use the money for storage.

“We all can’t afford to go out and buy extra refrigerators and extra freezers,” Hazlett said. 

In light of the USDA cuts, other funding sources are being considered, Huftalen said. 

Cat Buxton, who has worked with Upper Valley school districts to reduce food waste and start composting, said that area farmers will be hurt by the cuts.

“The timing of these cuts couldn't be worse for a farm,” Buxton, of Sharon, said. She added that many farmers have already ordered seeds and set up their field plans for what they are planning to grow for the upcoming season. 

 “Farmers are losing a market,” Buxton said. “Schools and child    care providers are struggling to   serve fresh, local food.”

Liz Sauchelli   can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.