dbeard@dominionpost.com
MORGANTOWN – Trey Yates is a fourth-generation dairy farmer who owns Greenbrier Dairy in Rainelle. Supplying schools and food banks make up 98% of his business and U.S. Department of Agriculture cuts to programs for schools and food banks threaten to close the farm and put his 10 employees out of work.
“DOGE was put in place to cut federal waste dollars,” he told The Dominion Post. “We don’t believe that the access to local, healthier food to kids or those facing hunger falls into that category. Anybody that does: This is morally wrong on many levels.”
The USDA recently announced $1 billion in cuts to two programs that enable schools and food banks to buy products from local farmers. One is the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) for states to buy local agricultural products to serve feeding programs, including food banks and organizations that reach underserved communities.
“The purpose of this program,” USDA says, “is to maintain and improve food and agricultural supply chain resiliency. … In addition to increasing local food consumption, the funds will help build and expand economic opportunity for local and underserved producers.” News reports indicate current LFPA agreements are safe but there will not be another round of funding this year.
The other is the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program (LSF), awarded to states for food assistance purchases of domestic local foods for distribution to schools and child care institutions. “This program will strengthen the food system for schools and childcare institutions by helping to build a fair, competitive, and resilient local food chain, and expand local and regional markets with an emphasis on purchasing from historically underserved producers and processors.”
Yates explained that the schools and food banks buy the products and submit invoices to the state for reimbursement. And while the Trump administration has said there will be a rough adjustment period as it aims to trim the federal budget, they haven’t said how soon something new will come.
“Time isn’t on our side on that,” Yates said. “We still have bills day in and day out. … We’re looking at the possibility of a closure if it lasts too long.”
The Dominion Post spoke with the state Department of Education and Department of Agriculture about these cuts, and with some other West Virginia producers.
The Department of Education said the state receives $2,727,150 for the school food budget and $1,060,910 for the child care budget. For this round of funding, as in previous iterations, a formula would be derived based upon county size and other factors. Counties would opt into the program after being notified of their allocation for the upcoming school year. They could opt out if they did not wish to participate and funds would have been reallocated within West Virginia.
The cuts are immediate, the Department of Education said. The plan for West Virginia was to issue funds for next school year – 2025-2026. These funds are in addition to standard reimbursement for school meals.
Asked what steps the department is taking on this issue, it said, “State Superintendent Michele Blatt is having discussions with the West Virginia Congressional delegation about the importance of these funds, the historical impact the LFS funds had on schools, and how these funds would have been used to directly improve West Virginia meal quality and support West Virginia farmers.”
Monongalia County Schools Director of Child Nutrition Brian Kiehl said Mon Schools isn’t eligible for the LFS funds but is awaiting word on possible cuts to the Community Eligibility Provision where kids get free breakfasts and lunches and schools are reimbursed using a formula based on the percentage of students categorically eligible for free meals based on their participation in other specific means-tested programs, such as SNAP andTANF.
“That will really affect us if that happens,” he said. The funding formula will be set on April 1, and they’re proceeding as normal but waiting to see if it gets cut.
Agriculture Commissioner Kent Leonhardt said LFPA funds flow through WVDA to the food banks. The food banks and the schools are buying local products from vendors in the state.
“They depend on that income,” he said. “They built their businesses around this. It hurts when they’re going to lose this funding.”
Phase I of the LFPA, he said, has $500,000 that can still be spent. But Phase 2 won’t be there. That cuts about $2 million out of the state’s agriculture economy.
“So yes, I’m hearing from farmers.” The Congressional delegation and the governor know about it.
He’s working with one of the two main food banks on messaging, and hoping the state Legislature can pick up a little slack, but the state budget is in flux with a $400 million shortfall to deal with.
Meanwhile, every year he asks the Legislature for $1 million for the West Virginia Grow program that allows in-state agribusinesses to explore and find new markets, to reduce their reliance on federal programs. So far, it’s never been budgeted.
Other farm projects
The West Virginia Food & Farm Coalition has a USDA Local Food Promotion Program grant to help small farmers and value-added producers reach more markets.
Coalition Executive Director Spencer Moss said they have a USDA grant for their Appalachian Cellar project, where 31 member farmers created a line of value-added products – jams, honeys, salsa, skin-care products and more. They launched on Jan. 16 then learned that the grant was paused and they could submit anything for reimbursement of their expenses after Jan. 19, when the Trump administration took over.
It is a way for farmers to diversify their operations, she said. They were two-thirds of the way in their effort and were set for the final push to develop sales and marketing pieces around that, and pushing advertising of the brand.
“Now, we’re very much on pause with the project,” she said. “Is this going to affect their bottom line? Absolutely.”
Lucas Sieber is co-founder of Mon Valley Mushrooms, a two-person indoor mushroom farm just outside Morgantown. Two of their USDA grants are in question.
One is a $20,000 Value Added Producer Grant which was awarded last year but they haven’t heard whether it will be fulfilled. With it they aim to buy specialized equipment to produce value-added products at greater quality and quantity, and pay his partner for doing the work.
The other is a Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Grant which hasn’t been not officially awarded but has state approval. RFSIs are on hold in other states, but not yet in West Virginia.It would go toward equipment for their middle of the supply chain – essentially everything past harvesting – for their seven value-added products.
The equipment will allow them to compete and even be profitable, he said “It’s basically going to make the business. We need to break even eventually.” Their hope is the grants would enable them to produce enough product sales to fund a building and move out its garage site.
But Sieber didn’t want the focus to be on him, he said. There’s a bigger picture. There are tens of thousands of small farms across the state.
“All of us are poor and struggling,” he said. “The wholesale devaluation of farms across the state and across the country through USDA cuts is really undermining the population and undermining food security for people.”
