Food banks continue to feel the pressures brought on by the pandemic.
((Clayton Baumgarth/WTIU News))
Food insecurity continues to be an issue for millions throughout the country. According to a United States Department of Agriculture report from 2023, 13.5 percent of households in the country were considered food insecure.
That’s an increase from 12.8 percent in 2022.
As food banks strive to address the problem, they rely on the federal Farm Bill, legislation that needs to be updated every five years.
Last year, a new Farm Bill was due to replace the 2018 version. Instead, the old version was renewed for another year.
Many of the programs in the Farm Bill, including The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) have funding levels set for the cost of goods back in 2018. Those prices have increased significantly since then.
Now, as election day nears, it’s less and less likely a new Farm Bill will be passed. That’s frustrating for people like Julio Alonso, executive director of Hoosier Hills Food Bank, because government inaction directly affects his organization’s ability to carry out its mission.
“I can't remember the last time Congress passed a budget on time, and unfortunately, that has a ripple effect every time they kick the can down the road with a continuing resolution,” he said. “It means that agencies like ours that are depending on that funding and that food don't know what we're going to get until the full budget is actually passed.”
Julio Alomso speaking to us in his office. (Clayton Baumgarth/WTIU News)
Part of the bill focuses on agricultural policies such as crop insurance and conservation funding, but the majority of it covers the SNAP program, formerly known as food stamps, and other food assistance programs.
“In our particular instance, about 25 percent of the food that we distributed last year came through USDA commodity programs, and funding comes attached to those programs to help cover administrative expenses,” Alonso said.
He added, “We're supporting a network of over 90 partner agencies in six counties with food that we have obtained from a variety of sources. A lot of it is rescued and donated, we go to retail stores, wholesalers and collect food that they might otherwise throw out.”
Alonso said the need for food programs tied to the Farm Bill is huge, as a lot has changed since 2018.
The pandemic saw many families become food insecure, and that increase of those in need hasn’t gone away, but the programs that help support them have.
“The expanded Child Tax Credit, universal free school meals, other anti-hunger initiatives, SNAP increases in benefits, additional commodities for food banks like ours; all of that stuff's gone away, but unfortunately, the need has remained just as high as it was during the height of the pandemic,” Alonso said.
Hoosier Hills is among 11 Feeding America food banks serving the state. Emily Weikert Bryant, executive director of Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, which represents those affiliates, also said the 2018 Farm Bill must be updated.
“When we have a static Farm Bill, things aren't necessarily lining up with what we need from an emergency hunger relief perspective,” she said.
She added, “The support for commodity food, in whatever format that might be, has decreased and has gone back to sort of standard operating under the Farm Bill, but it's really not meeting the need, and so our members are struggling to have enough product to distribute.”.
While TEFAP is important to food banks, it pales in comparison to the SNAP program in providing food to Americans in need.
“Our member food banks distribute over 100 million pounds of food annually,” Bryant explained. “That said, for every one meal that a Feeding America affiliate Food Bank provides, SNAP provides nine. It is the cornerstone of any nutrition security that we have as a country.”
So why is something as important as SNAP rolled in with agricultural assistance programs and not its own piece of legislation?
It was also a choice to get both pieces passed more easily. They were combined into one bill to get votes from Republicans on the agricultural policies and votes from Democrats on the food assistance policies. Much has changed since the bill originated.
“The percentage of people utilizing SNAP benefits in rural areas is the same and sometimes higher than in urban areas,” she said. “So any rural member of Congress who seems to think that the nutrition title doesn't impact their constituents is reading it wrong.”
Now, the very thing that once made the Farm Bill easier to pass may have become the thing blocking its legislative progress, according to Indiana State Department of Agriculture director Don Lamb.
“They're working hard and they'll do it when they can, but the system itself seems to be so bogged down in the partisanship that it makes it hard to move even an ag bill forward,” he said.
ISDA Director Don Lamb. (Clayton Baumgarth/WTIU News)
Many of the issues plaguing the nutrition side of the bill are also found in the ag side, namely the ever-changing sale price of crops.
“Now you've got the farm community that's really dealing with low prices and high costs, and so there's just been so much that has changed since 2018 that things just need to be updated,” Lamb said.
Lamb also said a new bill must find new markets for American agricultural goods.
“The trade imbalance is going the wrong way for us right now, and so putting more money into those efforts, giving our products more of a market worldwide. makes all the difference,” he said.
Weikert Bryant said without a new bill, food programs will carry on but without updated funding.
“There's not any immediate change, largely because what we see in September for October has already been funded,” she said. “Programs will continue so long as funding continues to be there, and that doesn't seem to be an issue in the short term.”
The ag aspect of the farm bill is largely similar in the short term, but one aspect could see major issues if not renewed or updated correctly: the dairy industry.
Dairy is one of the more subsidized industries in agriculture, and the Farm Bill lays out much of that assistance.
Dairy prices could increase 117% if the dairy cliff is reached. (Clayton Baumgarth/WTIU News)
Steve Obert, the executive director of Indiana Dairy Producers said that if there isn’t a new or renewed Farm Bill by January 1, the country could face what is known as a “dairy cliff,” a point when prices of milk could more than double.
“We would see milk prices that we hadn't ever seen, quite frankly,” he said.
But the unprecedented would have to happen for that to occur.
Currently, a House version of the bill is waiting for a floor vote. A Senate version hasn’t made it out of committee.
For Alonso, any bill would be better than nothing.
“I guess the bottom line is that getting a renewed Farm Bill at the same levels is better than getting no Farm Bill at all,” he said. “So you know, hopefully they'll at least get that much done.”
Congress has until the end of this month before the 2018 Farm Bill expires. It will then have a period of five weeks to either pass a new bill or renew the old one during the lame duck session.
