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Education News
Elizabeth Shockman
St. Paul

USDA cuts farm-to-school food funding in Minnesota

A lunchroom at a school
Students eat lunch in a commons area at North High School in Minneapolis. The USDA last week said it would not honor its agreement to pay more than $17 million over three years to help Minnesota schools purchase food from local farmers.
Ben Garvin for MPR News 2024

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Minnesota is losing millions in federal dollars for farm-to-school programs after the United States Department of Agriculture announced it would cancel promised funding.

The USDA last week said it would not honor its agreement to pay more than $17 million over three years to help Minnesota schools purchase food from local farmers.

The canceled funds would have reimbursed schools for locally-purchased food. The contracts would have represented the largest amount ever invested in Minnesota farm-to-school or farm-to-food shelf funding.

The cuts are a blow to schools and farmers, said Erin McKee with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a Minnesota-based nonprofit research and advocacy group.

“It would have represented a huge investment into our local farmers and our local communities. I heard from a lot of farmers who were very excited to have this be a part of their business plan,” said McKee. “We're extremely devastated that they have made the decision to cancel this funding.”

Grant money was expected to start flowing next year with $9.2 million going to K-12 schools and $4 million to early child care operations. Nearly $5 million was set to go to to the local food purchase assistance cooperative agreement program, which would have also supported purchases from local farms to go into food shelves.

The program is very popular. McKee said she received 128 applications, mostly from districts, but also a few individual schools in 2023. More than 400 Minnesota farmers have sold fresh meat, dairy, green fruit and vegetables to schools under the program.

The contract cancellations come as part of the Trump administration’s broad plan to slash programs and jobs across the federal government.

In December, the Biden administration said it would spend more than $1 billion to support local and regional food systems, including the Local Food for Schools program.

A USDA spokesperson told the news site Politico that while the current contracts would stay in place, the commitments made for the next three years were being canceled because they “no longer effectuate the goals of the agency.”