CURRENT EVENTS IMPACTING PHILABUNDANCE
AND OUR NEIGHBORS

IMPORTANT NEWS

Philabundance works every day to ensure that everyone in our communities has the nutritious food they need to thrive. Our mission is to drive hunger from our communities today and to end hunger for good.

To do this, we rely on community support, strong relationships with local food donors, and vital public-private partnerships at the local, state, and federal levels. These partnerships provide a variety of funding and food sources that, last year, helped Philabundance and our network of more than 350 community partners in our 9-county service area provide over 38 million meals for our neighbors.

But, we are facing challenges. At a time when food insecurity is at its highest in years, we are losing critical funding and resources that would help us provide for those in need. Read on for details.

Funding Updates: (as of May 2025)

Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) funding has been eliminated. This change results in the loss of $1.5 million used to purchase food from local PA farmers and distribute to our neighbors in need – equating to about 1.1 million fewer meals distributed in the coming year. This will reduce our food purchase budget by 18%.

    • Since the inception of the LFPA program in 2022, Philabundance has purchased over $4,000,000 of food from PA farmers and producers for those in our region facing hunger. 

 

The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) changes. TEFAP is a federal nutrition program in which the USDA purchases food from U.S. farmers and makes these foods available to food banks to distribute to our neighbors in need. In March of 2025, we learned that a portion of our TEFAP (the Commodity Credit Corp program, or TEFAP CCC), had been cancelled for the rest of our fiscal year – a loss of $525,000 worth of food, and equivalent to about 200,000 fewer meals for our neighbors.  

    • It is currently unclear if this funding will be available at all going forward. In FY2024, Philabundance received 3.1 million pounds of TEFAP CCC – if this funding stream is eliminated, it would cause a significant shortfall in what we are able to provide to the community. 

How does this impact Philabundance and our neighbors in PA and NJ?

  • The need today is higher than at any point during the pandemic. Over 600,000 people in our service area do not have enough to eat – including 1 in 6 children, and 1 in 3 children in Philadelphia.
  • Food prices in our region are 25% higher than they were in 2020. The cost of food, coupled with fewer resources and rising need, is putting a strain on our ability to help more of our neighbors.
  • With impacts looming around tariffs, proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) and school meals, and the proposed elimination of Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP, or the Senior Box Program), our resources may be stretched even further. Higher food prices will impact how far we can stretch a dollar, while cuts to programs like SNAP will create a significant rise in need across the community.
    • Although legislation is still pending, Congress is considering a $230 billion cut to SNAP and a $880 billion cut to Medicaid over the next 10 years.
    • SNAP is our nation’s first line of defense against hunger. For every 1 meal food banks provide, SNAP provides 9. Significant changes to SNAP will inevitably cause food insecurity to rise and place a larger burden on organizations like Philabundance.
    • The current administration is proposing eliminating the CSFP. This federally funded program enables food banks like Philabundance to provide nutritious monthly food boxes to low-income senior citizens.

We can face these challenges as we always have – together. If you would like to know how you can help, please see below for a few ways you can make an immediate impact. For future updates, check back here and follow us on social media.

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Community support is what drives the work of Philabundance. Your donation will go directly to helping replace meals that were lost due to cuts and increase our ability to provide support for those in need.
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Please know that the work of Philabundance is continuing, and that our commitment remains to supporting those facing hunger – day in and day out, as we have for 40 years.

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