Wait, Trump/Musk Were LYING When They Said Cutting USAID Meant We'd Feed People At Home???

$1 billion to buy food from farmers for schools and food banks 'no longer effectuates agency priorities.'

Oliver Twist (1948)

Hey! Anyone remember the last few weeks when, every time anyone criticized the Trump administration for gutting USAID, his defenders would cry out that we should use that money here instead, to take care of our own citizens? Because “America First”?

Well, as we all told them, either to their faces or merely in our own heads as we shook our fists at our screens, the Trump administration has no intention of “taking care” of our own citizens, either (and, let’s be real here — neither did anyone saying that).

The US Department of Agriculture has cut $660 million in funds meant to assist schools and child care centers in buying food from local farmers through the Local Food for Schools program, as well as $420 million from the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, which provides food from local farmers to food banks in underserved areas.

Is this what making America great/healthy looks like?

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“These programs, created under the former Administration via Executive authority, no longer effectuate the goals of the agency. LFPA and LFPA Plus agreements that were in place prior to LFPA 25, which still have substantial financial resources remaining, will continue to be in effect for the remainder of the period of performance,” an agency spokesrobot (we’re just assuming here) told Politico.

More than 40 states with school districts that had signed up for the program were notified on Friday that it would not be continuing.

“Cutting funds for these programs is a slap in the face to Illinois farmers and the communities they feed,” said Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, who also said the state would not be able to continue the program on its own without reimbursements from the federal government. “The Trump Administration's refusal to release grant funds doesn't just hurt farmers in the program, it devastates our most vulnerable, food-insecure communities relying on meat, fresh produce and other nutritious donations.”

“Donald Trump and Elon Musk have declared that feeding children and supporting local farmers are no longer ‘priorities,’ and it’s just the latest terrible cut with real impact on families across Massachusetts,” said Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey. “There is nothing ‘appropriate’ about it. Trump and Musk are continuing to withhold essential funding in violation of court orders, and our children, farmers and small businesses are bearing the brunt of it.”

“With research showing school meals are the healthiest meals Americans eat, Congress needs to invest in underfunded school meal programs rather than cut services critical to student achievement and health,” said Shannon Gleave, president of the School Nutrition Association.

The School Nutrition Association also noted that Congress is considering other initiatives that will:

• Restrict the Community Eligibility Provision (which allows schools in high poverty areas to offer free meals to all students)

• Require income verification with every free and reduced-price school meal application (which will cost a whole lot more than just feeding all of them)

• End Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility (this allows families that qualify for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families to automatically be enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and then automatically qualify for subsidized school meals)

“These proposals would cause millions of children to lose access to free school meals at a time when working families are struggling with rising food costs. Meanwhile, short-staffed school nutrition teams, striving to improve menus and expand scratch-cooking, would be saddled with time-consuming and costly paperwork created by new government inefficiencies,” Gleave explained.

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This is what Trump and Musk and DOGE consider “eliminating government waste.” They think it is wasteful to feed our children healthy foods and they think it’s wasteful to help farmers by buying food at a time when farmers are not doing so great.

(In case you were wondering, 77 percent of voters in America’s top farming communities voted for Donald Trump — and while it may seem fun to laugh in their leopard-eaten faces, it’s important to remember that we actually all benefit from these kinds of farm subsidies.)

This is not eliminating waste. Even if one wants to be entirely selfish and greedy about it, it will be more expensive in the long run to deal with the larger health problems caused by malnutrition, and the impact that not having healthy meals will have on the education and behavior of low-income students. Farmers, without the ability to count on a certain amount of income from the government for aid programs, may end up charging us all more for groceries.

But hey! It’ll make a small number of people feel really good for probably about ten minutes until they find another thing to be confused and upset about, and isn’t that what really matters?

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