By Delayna Earley
The Island News
The Trump administration made moves to cut more than $1 billion in programs aimed at helping schools and food banks to buy fresh food and meat in early March, which has left many across the country asking about how this is going to impact them locally.
The cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) primarily affect two programs for this fiscal year – the Local Food for Schools and Child Care Cooperative Agreement Program (LFS), which helped to get goods from the local ranchers, farmers and fishers into schools, and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) which focused on providing food to food banks from small farmers within 400 miles.
It appears that these cuts to the USDA are not expected to have immediate impacts on the students attending schools in Beaufort County.
In Beaufort County, students district wide began receiving meals at no charge during this school year thanks to the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) which is funded by the USDA.
Each year a district policy requires the district to analyze the calculations of the CEP to see if any of the schools are eligible, according to Tonya Crosby, the chief financial officer for BCSD, and this year all Beaufort County schools were eligible for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to BCSD spokesperson Candace Bruder, the South Carolina Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program (LFS) will be impacted by these cuts, but while Beaufort County does receive funding from that program, they are not dependent on them to provide meals to students.
“We received approximately $500,000 in each of the last two fiscal years for Supply Chain Assistance (SCA),” Bruder said. “No funds for this were received prior to [fiscal year] 2023 nor has any been received this year. These funds were not funds we planned on, they arrived at random times over the last two years, so the food service program is not dependent on them since there was no reassurance we would continue to receive the funds.”
The food vendor used by BCSD, The Nutrition Group (TNG), is contractually obligated to purchase food and Bruder said they anticipate that all the recurring revenue in the program to fully cover the costs of the food and other expenses of the school food service program.
According to Bruder, the SCA program is ending, but not due to cuts made by the Trump administration.
The program was originally set to end on September 30, 2024, but funds are still being distributed from that program.
“The only item that could potentially impact Beaufort County Schools would be cuts to the communities program, but we have not yet received enough information from the USDA to fully understand the extent of those cuts,” Bruder said. “We remain committed to providing high quality education and resources for our students, and we continuously monitor federal and state funding developments. Should any policy changes arise, we will assess their potential effects and proactively plan to ensure that our schools, teachers and students continue to receive the support they need.”
Delayna Earley, joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
