WALLINGFORD, CT – Recent cuts to a federal food program will have a severe negative impact on numerous people throughout Connecticut, including farmers, families and nonprofit agencies like Connecticut Foodshare, officials and local farmers said this week.
“The cuts don’t just affect budgets. They affect real farms, real families,” said Dakota Rudloff, owner of River Ridge Farm, during a news conference at Connecticut Foodshare in Wallingford on Tuesday. “We need our leaders to understand the real impact of these decisions and restore this critical funding.”
The Local Food Purchase Assistance 2025 Cooperative Agreement (LFPA25), first approved by former USDA Secretary Vilsack in October 2024, has been eliminated as part of an administrative decision on the federal level, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District said.
US Rep. Rosa DeLauro speaks about federal cuts to a food program that will affect Connecticut farmers and nonprofits on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Credit: Viktoria Sundqvist / CT Newsjunkie
She called cutting the program “a most egregious act.”
“It’s more important than ever for farmers to have a reliable source of income,” she said. “We should be uplifting these programs, not cutting them.”
CT Foodshare President Jason Jakubowski, whose agency serves 600 local food pantries across the state’s 169 communities, said the program allowed the investment of nearly $3 million with local farmers to distribute more than 1 million meals to people across the state.
The federal program provided a way for food banks to get locally grown produce while also supporting local farmers, he said.
“The loss of this funding is immense, and it has a direct impact on both the people we serve, as well as our local farm partners,” he said.
He added that 1 in 8 Connecticut residents experience food insecurity.
“We live in a world where a box of Twinkies is less expensive than a bushel of apples,” Jakubowski said. “The effects of this are going to hurt farmers and it’s going to hurt food pantries.”
DeLauro said she has been asking the USDA for answers about the funding cuts, but is still waiting to hear back. She is also concerned about funding for the Local Food for Schools Program, which provides federal funding for local food assistance purchases for distribution to schools and child care institutions, and she emphasized that these are non-partisan issues that shouldn’t be up for debate.
“Hunger doesn’t discriminate by political affiliation,” she said.
FILE PHOTO: Farmer Will DellaCamera speaks to reporters and other farmers Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, at the state Capitol in Hartford about his experience following the loss of his entire crop at the Cecarelli’s Harrison Hill Farm in the Northford section of North Branford. Credit: Doug Hardy / CTNewsJunkie
Willie DellaCamera, owner of Cecarelli Farm, agreed.
“This isn’t a left or right problem,” he said. “It’s a right or wrong problem.”
DellaCamera last year rode 871 miles on his tractor from his Northford farm to Washington and back to seek help for local farmers whose properties and crops were destroyed by bad storms. DeLauro was able to help secure federal funding through a Farm Recovery and Support Block Grant Program to help some of the farms recover, but she said many small farmers often get left behind.
On Tuesday, DellaCamera said cuts to food assistance programs would affect neighbors and friends.
“We’ve just been let down again by our government,” he said. “It’s going to hurt all of us. I don’t know how we’re going to keep going.”
Connecticut Agriculture Commissioner Bryan P. Hurlburt said the cuts would reverberate not just in the farm community, but in all local communities.
Connecticut Agriculture Commissioner Bryan P. Hurlburt speaks at an event at Connecticut Foodshare in Wallingford on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Credit: Viktoria Sundqvist / CT Newsjunkie
“The program was an investment in their business,” he said, allowing farm owners to plan ahead, invest in equipment or hire more staff. “These are the sort of things that we should expect our government to deliver on.”
The funds also helped reach communities that wouldn’t otherwise have access to fresh local produce, and the program helped ensure crops wouldn’t go to waste, said Emmanuel Marte of Micro2Life Farm.
“The cuts will dramatically reduce what we can do,” Marte said.
DeLauro said she hoped some of these cuts could be reversed. She and others in attendance Tuesday said they also were hopeful the Connecticut legislature would pass House Bill 7021, which would fully fund the Connecticut Nutrition Assistance Program (CT-NAP) at $10 million and would require that at least 15 percent of those funds ($1.5 million) be used to buy fresh food specifically from Connecticut farmers.
“At this point, this is the only way that we will be able to continue purchasing in bulk from local Connecticut farmers,” Jakubowski said.
Those wishing to donate to CT Foodshare can do so at various events across the state or at CT Foodshare’s main location at 2 Research Parkway in Wallingford.
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