USDA yanks $11.3M to buy Iowa meat, dairy, fruits, veggies for schools, day cares, more
The Trump administration cut $11.3 million in funding for programs that provided thousands of children across Iowa with locally produced meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables, a move that drew protests from farmers and other groups who said it threatens their financial viability.
On Monday, the Iowa Department of Agriculture notified participants in two federal programs that buy local food that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had cut funding for 2025 to 2028, part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to slash federal spending.
The programs provided locally grown food to dozens of schools, day care centers and food banks in Iowa.
“For Iowa farmers, the impact is immediate and potentially devastating,” the Iowa Farmers Union, a family farming coalition, said in a statement. “Producers who have already planned over $3 million in food sales in 2025 through these programs now face sudden financial uncertainty.”
Chris Schwartz, executive director of the Iowa Food System Coalition, said the loss of income could tip farmers who operate on "very thin margins" into bankruptcy.
"We are unnecessarily uprooting the lives of table-food farmers who have been good-faith partners in the effort to get the children of Iowa the high-quality nutritious food they deserve,” Schwartz, whose group represents farmers, schools and other groups committed to sustainable local food production, said in a statement.
Altogether, the USDA is cutting $1 billion that had been committed to providing local food across the country.
Iowa Department of Agriculture: Cuts should 'not come as a surprise'
The news comes about a month after Trump signed an executive order calling for the federal government to "aggressively combat the critical health challenges facing our citizens," including fighting chronic childhood diseases.
Last fall, then-President Joe Biden’s USDA extended its three-year local food purchasing programs for another three years.
Don McDowell, the Iowa Department of Agriculture’s spokesman, said in a statement Monday “it should not come as a surprise that a program announced in October 2024 by executive action, rather than legislatively directed, won't be continued past its original end date.”
Gov. Kim Reynolds' office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The coalition and other groups are asking state and federal elected officials to lobby the president for the funding's return.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said in a call with reporters Tuesday he would reach out to USDA officials about the decision. But, he added, groups shouldn't see the move as final, given the administration's actions over the past month, "cutting something or firing somebody, then next day, they reverse their position."
The funding uncertainty affects 135 Iowa school districts, 300 farmers and 951 locations such as pantries, churches and early care sites in 98 counties that distribute local food, according to the Iowa Valley Resource Conservation and Development, a nonprofit that works with farmers, schools and other local food groups.
"This funding being unceremoniously cut off hurts farmers, low-income households, and rural vitality with no discernible benefit," Jordan Scheibel, owner of Middle Way Farm in Grinnell, said in a statement.
Other Iowans also have been caught in federal cuts. Iowa and other Midwestern farmers are awaiting $11 million the Trump administration owes them for conservation work they completed last year.
And farmers have worried that $31 billion in economic and disaster aid that Congress approved in December would be stalled by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, headed up by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins acknowledged the concern last month, saying the USDA was working to send out the payments by mid-March, the congressional deadline.
For some, expected funds already have been spent
The Iowa Food System Coalition said many Iowa table-food farmers already had begun raising this year’s crops before the food purchasing programs were ended.
“In greenhouses across Iowa, the plants are already sprouting up, processing time in meat lockers has already been booked, seeds have been ordered, money spent, and countless hours of planning has been done,” said Schwartz, whose group represents farmers, schools, food banks, food hubs and other supporters of local food production.
“Now we are going to pull the rug out at the 11th hour and leave these folks out to dry,” he said.
The federal programs made $7.8 million in local food purchases in Iowa over the past three years, the Iowa Farmers Union said.
Schwartz said the programs have helped feed thousands of Iowa children and provided income for hundreds of Iowa farmers, many of whom have invested in equipment like freezers that let them preserve vegetables so they’re available to families year-round.
“I’m really concerned. Families have built their business around this funding," Schwartz said. “It’s a slap in the face."
It hurts rural communities as well, he said, since every dollar spent on locally grown food generates $1.90 in economic activity.
And greater demand from schools, day-care centers and food banks helps lower cost for other consumers, who are seeing egg prices skyrocket as bird flu kills millions of chickens and the president’s planned tariffs are expected to raise grocery prices, he said.
Schoolchildren lose out as well, said Julie Udelhofen, a north Iowa school food service director.
“Schools won’t be able to serve fresh, nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables that encourage lifelong healthy eating,” she said in a statement.
Nancy Eastman, a northeast Iowa school food service director, said in a statement that the cuts come as USDA funding, which provides the bulk of spending for school lunch programs, is shrinking.
“And now they want to take away the extra dollars that help us buy fresh, local food. They say they want us to buy local and cook from scratch — but they don’t want to pay for it.”
McDowell, the Iowa ag spokesman, said Monday the programs that link Iowa farmers, food hubs, food banks and schools are important. The agency announced a local foods pilot initiative Monday, providing $70,000 to Iowa schools for local food purchases. In July, the state said it would provide $225,000 in a similar pilot program for food banks.
Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@registermedia.com.