The food supply chain cannot be detached from politics, so when something big happens in the government, it has ripple effects that reach the kitchen tables of millions in the U.S.
Such was the case in 2025 and will certainly continue into 2026 as fights between feds and the states continue on key food-funding programs.
USDA announced a lot of big changes in 2025. Early in March, it announced it was cutting funding for the Local Food for Schools program and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program. Collectively, these two programs spent more than $1 billion to help schools and food banks buy food from local farms and ranches.
In her coverage of the move, The Packer’s Christina Herrick talked with food bank leaders on the impacts. Sources who led organizations that provide access to fresh produce said the cuts would directly impact their abilities to help those in need.
The USDA’s reorganization, particularly closing key facilities and moving or downsizing personnel, also posed negative impacts for groups keeping those most in need fed. The Packer’s Jennifer Strailey sat down with Georgia Machell, National WIC Association president and CEO, in July on what the moves would mean.
“We’re always thinking about the end user and the folks who participate in the program to access healthy food and fresh fruits and vegetables, breastfeeding support, nutrition education, and [we’re concerned about] the disruptions to service that we know this is going to present,” Machell said.
Also in July, Strailey covered USDA’s “National Farm Security Action Plan.” The wide-ranging plan touched on everything from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding benefits, tackling supposed SNAP fraud, the continuation of mass deportations and more in the effort to position American agriculture as a key element of national security and to strengthen the domestic food supply.
OBBB, SNAP, WIC and the government shutdown
The reconciliation bill, previously titled and widely known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” was signed into law on July 4, 2025. Alongside massive cuts to food support programs like SNAP and WIC, The Packer’s Kerry Halladay dug into what the massive funding bill held for the fresh produce industry.
In short, most of what specialty crops growers had hoped for in a farm bill was included, especially hundreds of millions worth of funding increases to key programs. The Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance praised the bill, saying: “Any Congressional investment in American agriculture must include specialty crops … Specialty crops represent nearly a quarter of U.S. crop value and make up more than half of what Americans eat.”
Though the OBBB slashed SNAP funds for the future, another political situation had a much more immediate impact on SNAP: The government shutdown in the fall.
As the longest government shutdown in history continued, states, foodbanks and retailers were scrambling with how to address a likely SNAP funding halt that would start Nov. 1. The Packer’s Jill Dutton reported on what groups were planning to try to prevent over 42 million Americans going hungry in the month of thanksgiving, but prospects were bleak.
“Philanthropy is not going to solve this hunger problem, and SNAP is our nation’s No. 1 defense against hunger,” said a Boston food bank leader. “There’s no way that our charitable food network or the system in this country can provide that much food overnight or quickly.”
Just days before the shutdown, Strailey spoke with Eric Mitchell, president of The Alliance to End Hunger. He warned that a potential SNAP funding halt could have a multibillion-dollar ripple effect on entire food supply chain.
“These changes don’t just impact the beneficiary, they also impact the larger community as a whole,” he said. “The impact is around $8 [billion] to $9 billion in economic loss to the food economy — that’s hitting retailers, farmers, producers, the truck drivers, the manufacturers — everyone is impacted by this policy change.”
The fight over SNAP funding seems sure to be a long-running issue. As of early December, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins issued an ultimatum to Democrat-led states: Turn over SNAP recipient data or no federal SNAP funds. States sued the federal government over such data requirements on privacy concerns, and that suit will drag on into the new year.
