BILLINGS — Montana food banks are expecting federal cuts to The Emergency Food Assistance Program to decrease supply in the next food shipments.
The Montana Food Bank Network (MFBN) lost $2.5 million, or 40%, of its federal emergency food assistance funding in March, which led to a 600,000-pound decrease of food statewide for the year.
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MFBN — based in Missoula — distributes food from the program, known as TEFAP, to 73 partner agencies in Montana.
One of these partner agencies, Billings Family Service, is losing an estimated 140,000 pounds worth of TEFAP food this year.
Program Manager of Warehouse Development Debbie Anderson says while the cuts did not show up in the last shipment of TEFAP food, the organization will see reductions in the upcoming shipment, especially on protein.
“We are anticipating protein is gonna be the first kind of thing that's gonna be the hardest. And unfortunately for Montana, protein is kind of high on the list for Montana's diet preferences,” she said.
Billings Family Service may turn to the community for help.
Board member Ed Ulledalen says while he is concerned about how the TEFAP cuts could affect the Billings area, he is also hopeful that the community will help replace those missing resources.
“We want to continue to broaden our support in the community, both from people that are supporting us financially but also businesses that are supporting in terms of giving food and that type of thing,” he said, “but I think we also need ongoing full of volunteers. There's a lot of work that's done down here by volunteers to help get the food distributed. And so, I think those are a couple critical parts of our mission to move forward.”
Montana Food Bank Network President and CEO Gayle Carlson says the number of Montana residents asking for assistance is growing. She attributes the reason for the increase to high grocery prices and federal employee layoffs, including the 360 U.S. Forest Service employees who were laid off in February.
Watch related coverage: Federal food assistance cuts impact Montana Food Bank Network
‘We're starting to see a lot of demands on our partner agencies for needing that assistance because a lot of individuals have been laid off that are federal employees,” she said.
Carlson remains positive despite her concerns. She is confident that food banks will figure out how to fill the need.
“There's a lot of other resources that we're working with, and our hope is to make that up so that they don't feel that hit,” she said. “Hopefully, it might just take us a little bit of time, but I think we can be safe in saying that we'll be doing our level best to try and meet those needs continuing.”
If you are interested in volunteering at Billings Family Service, you can sign up here.
