MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A member of the Monongalia County Commission has open concerns about the current status of area food banks.
Commissioner Tom Bloom offered an update on the effects of recent decisions made on a federal level in the closing minutes of the commission’s regular meeting Wednesday, where he stated over a quarter of the Monongalia County food banks are at risk of closing permanently. This stems from conversations with a combination of agencies that address food insecurity in the area that have started to begin major re-evaluations as a result of millions of federal funds being pulled back from federal budgets.
“With all the pantries there, probably a year from now one-third of the pantries will be gone, and I’m very concerned about how it’s going to affect our county,” said Bloom. “We are trying to do everything we can do as commissioners to try and promote programs, but it’s very difficult to do this with the increases.”
According to Bloom, cuts to federal food programs have already directly impacted organizations like the Mountaineer Food Bank, which used the now discontinued Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) Program through the United States Department of Agriculture. As a result, separate purchases of typically locally produced food were significantly lowered as part of their most recent food distribution last Saturday. With the funding for the over $1 billion program not expected to continue in the near future, Bloom expects local organizations that use it to manage whatever funds they have available to adjust for the federal dry-up.
“As Mountaineer Food Bank was there, they explained that the LFPA program, which is the local program that buys food from local growers, was gutted,” said Bloom.
A separate cut of the USDA Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) has also affected food donations for organizations in Monongalia County. According to Bloom, this has prevented separate federal food donations that were a part of the program from continuing, which in turn has led to a near-minimal food distribution period that hasn’t been seen in the Morgantown area for several years. Combined with the discontinuation of the LFPA program, Bloom felt a level of concern from local organizations like the Mountaineer Food Bank to the point where their long-term prospects might need to be considered.
“Then the TEFAP program, which is the federal program that brings produce in, that was supposed to be reduced on July 1st, it happened on April 1st,” Bloom said.
Despite the decline in federal funds, there’s an expectation that the Monongalia County Commission will continue to support individual budget allocations for area food banks. This includes allocations towards Pantry Plus More, the United Way of Mon and Preston Counties, and social services headquartered at Hazel’s House of Hope in Morgantown, which works with agencies across the Greater Morgantown area. While the overall state of Monongalia County food banks is in a place not seen in a long time while food insecurity remains a steadfast issue for the county, the commission hopes to find some avenues of support on a local level.
“The increase in need now is growing exponentially, and the cost of the food is getting higher, and the amount of money available is less,” said Bloom. “So it’s something that we’re all addressing.”