FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 26, 2025
KENTWOOD, Mich. — Feeding America West Michigan has been informed that more than half of the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) truckloads of food ordered from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for April through July have been cancelled. That amounts to 32 semi-trailer loads of protein and fresh dairy that were planned for distribution to hundreds of communities in West Michigan and the Upper Peninsula.
Feeding America West Michigan’s President and CEO Kenneth Estelle said the organization is committed to making sure community members who rely on the organization for nutritious food will not notice a change. Estelle said the organization can ride out the four-month period of reduced shipments through a number of steps. Staff have identified products in the organization’s inventory that can be substituted for some of the lost products. Staff are also identifying vendors and funding to purchase the products that will no longer be arriving from the United States Department of Agriculture.
“We are working with many food donors to assist with additional food, as well as purchasing food that may be needed to fill the gap,” Estelle said. “Ultimately, we will have food to meet our food pantry partner’s and mobile food distribution requirements.”
Food banks like Feeding America West Michigan are the distribution hubs serving local food pantries that are hosted by community nonprofits. In addition to food pantries housed at local nonprofits, Feeding America West Michigan partners with local agencies to run Mobile Food Pantries in which a Feeding America West Michigan truck arrives with frozen meat, fresh produce, and dairy products for local volunteers to distribute straight from the truck.
The cancelled products — which include frozen chicken and pork, eggs, and milk — were primarily planned for Mobile Food Pantry distributions throughout the food bank’s 40-county service area this spring and summer.
Feeding America West Michigan is one of seven food banks in Michigan. Feeding America West Michigan’s service area includes Western Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, serving more than 800 local agency partners.
The impact of the cancelled shipments is being felt by food banks throughout the country. Food banks throughout the United States receive food from several federal government programs and state sources. With the affected program, the USDA purchases food and distributes it to states for distribution through networks of food banks. Food banks then distribute food to local agencies.
The cancelled shipments are tied to the Trump Administration’s decision to end one program in the USDA’s The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). In addition, a program that provided funds to purchase from local farmers will end on Sept. 30.
Estelle said that food bank leaders throughout the United States will be closely watching federal budget proposals and farm bill proposals in the months ahead and work diligently to fight off any additional cuts.
Media Contact: Anne Hamming, anneh@fawm.org, (616) 498-1936.