How Are Federal Cuts Impacting Ballard Food Bank?

Last week, Executive Director Jen Muzia led a webinar to address some of the questions we’ve been hearing from volunteers and community members who have noticed it’s been more of a challenge to keep our shelves stocked throughout the week.

Here’s an overview of what we’re seeing in these uncertain times.

Are all food banks experiencing a shortage of food?

Food banks across the city are experiencing this challenge. As food banks, we’re all talking about how our food supply is down and more people are coming through. With inflation especially our neighbors are needing to shop at multiple food banks to make ends meet. As one of my colleagues shared at another food bank this is the worst they have seen the food supply in over 20 years. It’s truly unprecedented.

Why do we have less food available?

First, it’s important to understand where food comes from:

    • Grocery recovery

    • Donation drives

    • In-Kind Donations

    • Food Lifeline

    • Government commodities

    • Bulk Buy with other food banks and meal programs

    • And we purchase food

We have seen less grocery recovering coming in, Lena is talking to grocery store partners to better understand why. Although we suspect stores are simply getting more efficient in their ordering which means they have less product to pass to us. Folks are also dropping off less in-kind donations, I think all of us are making different decisions about where to shop and what to buy.

The food we buy costs more so our budget doesn’t go as far – tremendous increase in eggs, protein especially – we always want to have all the food people are looking for but that’s a challenge for the first time. For the time being we have stopped purchasing eggs, so that we can try and purchase other protein items that cost less. And we’re surveying our shoppers so that we can get more info from them as we make purchasing decisions.

I’ve heard that the government is cutting TEFAP/commodities to food banks. What does that mean?

The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) is a program of the United States Department of Agriculture. The USDA purchases commodities from agriculture producers that then get distributed to the states, including Washington.  The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) orders that food from the USDA and this is then distributed to food banks, food pantries and meal programs. What we receive is based on unemployment level and poverty numbers.

This week it was confirmed that the USDA is cutting food to food banks, schools, etc. Within TEFAP there are three types of product: Entitlement, Bonus and Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC).

We have received confirmation that the CCC product has been permanently canceled. This is about 50% of the government commodities we receive. It includes milk, dried fruit, canned and frozen protein. At this time TEFAP entitlement and bonus product will continue.

Is the food bank funded by the federal government?

Less than 10% of our revenues comes from government. We do NOT receive federal funding. We do receive funding from the state which is minimal. And we have several city contracts. The majority of our funds come from our community! All of you. Plus our corporate donors, a small portion is grant funded and events. Which is why we say we are our community’s food bank. 73% of our charitable contributions are from individuals like you!

We're doing the best to work with our budget and constantly looking at where can we find more money, and what might we have to cut. We have to be nimble and adjust as these changes keep coming.

Every gift matters. We could not do what we do without all of you.

Ballard Food Bank