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Caroline MacGregor: You're listening to 89.1 WEMU. I'm Caroline McGregor, and my guest today is Eileen Spring. She's the CEO of Food Gatherers in Ann Arbor. We are talking today about the impact of recently announced federal funding cuts on the organization's mission, which is to alleviate hunger. Welcome, Eileen!
Eileen Spring: Thank you for having me!
Caroline MacGregor: Tell me. Did these federal funding cuts come as a surprise to you?
Eileen Spring: Yes, they did. And it was not very clear communication. Essentially, we got an inkling that things were happening in late February and March, a predictable source of food for food banks, like Food Gatherers, has been a program that's managed by the USDA. And so, that's really been a very reliable source of food that it accounts for, as a whole, 30% of the food that we distribute throughout Washtenaw County every year. And we expect loads to come in, or what we call, loads of trucks of food, of really, really great food: protein items, produce, dairy items that our neighbors who go to food pantries really appreciate. And we started to see a diminishment of those loads before we ever had any formal notice. But in April, or excuse me, in late March, we were notified that all feature orders that we were expecting in April and May were cut, and this happened throughout the country. And so, we really did not have any notice, right, to prepare for this. and at Food Gatherers, we'll be losing 15% of our food that we have been receiving from the USDA.
Caroline MacGregor: I was going to ask you how much of the budget comes from USDA.
Eileen Spring: Our food sourcing, 30% historically has come, and half of that has been eliminated.
Caroline MacGregor: Did you ever think that you would be one of the organizations targeted by federal funding cuts?
Eileen Spring: Well, there's a lot of unpredictable things happening in DC right now. And so, there was not any communication coming from traditional sources of the USDA until more recently, when it was formally announced that, yes, indeed, this food that you were expecting, that was budgeted for, will not be coming.
Caroline MacGregor: What is the level of need in the community for food assistance at this time?
Eileen Spring: Well, the level of need has been high since the pandemic, and that's not unique to Washtenaw County. It's really happening throughout the country. And this particular food, which is food that comes through TFAP, is what we call it, Temporary Emergency Food Assistance and it's funded by the CCC, as it's referred to, and it's sort of a discretionary fund that every administration has. And this investment had been approved. So, that's why we were really surprised to have it eliminated. And it's really been helping food banks respond to increased demand at food pantries that's really pretty constant since the pandemic. And the causes are pretty clear to people. Food is expensive everywhere, and food inflation has been really high. And people are talking about eggs, but it affects everything. And particularly in Washtenaw County, the cost of living is high. So, even though we have low unemployment rates, both in Michigan and throughout the country, many people are relying on this kind of assistance to make their ends meet every month.
Caroline MacGregor: As you face what appears to be a very uncertain future at this time, number one, how will you attempt to make up for this shortfall? And what is your message for the community?
Eileen Spring: Well, our message is that we are continuing to advocate for the restoration of these kinds of food resources. We'll also be reaching out to local governments and state governments to help fill the gap. And we will be reaching out to private philanthropy to access more food through purchasing. You know, one of the important programs that was cut recently is a local food purchasing agreement. And that was money that came to food banks and to local school systems to be able to purchase food from local farmers in a 400-mile radius. So, it was helping the local economy and helping local sort of food systems become more resilient. And that's one of the programs that has been cut. That is really sad to see because it's not just people who face food insecurity that this hurts, this hurts farmers and it hurts retailers.
Caroline MacGregor: If you're just joining us, my guest today is Eileen Spring, CEO of Food Gatherers in Ann Arbor. And the organization is currently facing some serious federal funding cuts that threaten to impact the organization's ability to help fight food insecurity. I believe also that 95% of donations to Food Gatherers goes directly to hunger relief activities in the community. Tell me a bit more about these. I mean, you've just mentioned a bit about the farmers and some others, but there's others. There's that hunger relief network of, I believe, 140 partner programs and agencies.
Eileen Spring: Yeah. So, for many years, Food Gatherers has worked with a whole bunch of small and large social service agencies, places of worship that host pantries or food distribution sites. We manage the community kitchen inside the Delonis Center, which serves people who are staying at the shelter. That's run by the Shelter Association. So, it's a whole array of programs. And Food Gatherers, because of our ability to raise private donations, we have a great volunteer force. We're really efficient at this work. We've been able to share that food at little or no cost with our partners. And that food has been valued at more than $18.5 million, and our partners are not paying for that. And so, that enables them to develop moreof their resources to their mission, to root causes of hunger. But this kind of diminishment of a reliable source of food is really making that hard for us to make it up quickly. And this is true nationwide. We cannot food drive our way out of this loss of food. And it's particularly food that is protein food, perishable food. It's more expensive, and it's really important for people's health outcomes. So, I can't overestimate really the impact that this is having on food banks like us.
Caroline MacGregor: I believe that the USDA TFAP food that was funded through the CCC, this food is essential food like milk, cheese, eggs, chicken, that kind of thing.
Eileen Spring: Yes, food that is both nutritionally and economically viable and important for people. And the value that USDA put on that food source for Food Gatherers alone is $2.5 million. So, that's the gap that we have to fill if we want to maintain the levels of food distribution that our community expects from us and needs from us.
Caroline MacGregor: Tell me a bit about baby formula. I believe that's another thing that you distribute.
Eileen Spring: Yes, true. And that's actually a different funding cut that we haven't even talked about yet. Historically, we have a local FEMA board, which is emergency food and shelter. And again, it's been a reliable source of resources. It's not a ton of money, but it comes to our county. And our county has a board that oversees it. And they have traditionally divvied up 50-50 between food, emergency food, and emergency shelter. And we at Food Gatherers have used that money to purchase baby formula for pantries throughout the community. And that funding has been paused, and I'm putting quotes on it. We expected it to come through about a month ago. There's no official word on what's happening to it. So, we are pretty much expecting that it is also going away.
Caroline MacGregor: How soon before you notice a real impact? I believe some of these cuts are going to really hit in June or July. Is that correct?
Eileen Spring: Well, we're seeing it right now, as of April. It is loads that we were expecting to arrive in April are not coming, nor will they come in May, nor they will come in June. And that's the end of our fiscal year. So, Food Gatherers is committed to using our reserves to try to replace a portion of that food for the coming fiscal year. But looking forward into next fiscal year starting in July, we are really urging our elected officials to advocate for the restoration of these funds or to help us and other food banks throughout the state of Michigan and the country to offset this loss because it will be devastating, especially if the proposed cuts to SNAP benefits go into effect. So, SNAP is also known as food stamps, and for every meal that SNAP supplies, or excuse me, for every meal that a food bank supplies, SNAP has provided nine. So, it's an important part of our safety net federally, and cuts are being proposed right now that could dramatically increase food insecurity throughout the country. So, this combination of food banks getting less resources at this moment is really alarming. The amount of food folks were expecting from us is continuing to come, but we're dipping into our reserves to do it right now. And we can do that for the remainder of this fiscal year because we're in our last quarter, but we're not able to do throughout next fiscal year, unless we get an influx rate of funding to offset this food loss.
Caroline MacGregor: Eileen, is there anything else you'd like to add just in the time that we have left?
Eileen Spring: I just encourage people to visit our website to learn how they can help and to reach out to their elected officials to advocate for a strong safety net for our community.
Caroline MacGregor: Eileen Spring, CEO of Food Gatherers in Ann Arbor, thank you for joining me today!
Eileen Spring: Thank you!
Caroline MacGregor: You're listening to 89.1 WEMU FM Ypsilanti.
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