The Department of Agriculture has slashed over $1 billion in funding aimed at helping schools and food banks purchase from local farmers, according to a nonprofit.

“Multiple states” were recently notified of these cuts, the nonprofit School Nutrition Association said in a statement Tuesday.

An estimated $660 million in funds through the Local Food for Schools program for 2025 will no longer be available to support childcare institutions and schools, the group added.

“This program will strengthen the food system for schools and childcare institutions by helping to build a fair, competitive, and resilient local food chain, and expand local and regional markets with an emphasis on purchasing from historically underserved producers and processors,” the USDA website says about the Local Food for Schools program.

The Independent has reached out to the USDA for comment.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education confirmed it received a notice of termination from the USDA on Friday of the second round of Local Food for Schools grant funding, an award of $12.2 million, claiming that they “determined this agreement no longer effectuates agency priorities and that termination of the award is appropriate,” the state’s governor Maura Healy said in a Monday statement.

The governor suggested the cuts were made as part of a Department of Government Efficiency-led effort to reduce spending in the federal government.

>https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/usda-cancels-funding-food-banks-schools-trump-b2713125.html