Nonprofits throughout the nation are calculating damage and assessing their options following the recent announcement of a nearly $1 billion cut to two Covid-era federal programs which helped provide funding for food assistance organizations in 40 states, including Rhode Island.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on Friday that within the next 60 days they would be cutting $660 million from the Local Food Purchase School Assistance Program and around $420 million from the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program, which created connections from local farms to provide fresh produce and other food items to schools, childcare programs, and food pantries.

The local impact from those cuts are expected to be felt throughout community nonprofits, particularly those who have partnerships with Farm Fresh Rhode Island, who manages those programs for the state. They estimate Rhode Island will be losing $3 million in funding due to the cuts, which is spread around to roughly 100 different programs throughout the state.

One local example comes from Good Neighbors in East Providence, which operates a community kitchen, two food pantries, as well as ancillary services like use of a free washer and dryer to anyone who seeks to access their services.

Good Neighbors has relied on receiving around $5,000 in small grants from Farm Fresh Rhode Island to buy local eggs throughout the year, which enables them to provide a nutritious breakfast every Friday, and provide a half dozen eggs to every family that visits their food pantry during allotted pantry days from May through December.

“We won't be able to do that without that grant,” said Good Neighbors Executive Director, Kate Mushipi.

Mushipi said that loss will have a ripple effect, as they now need to plan to fundraise for eggs as part of their annual appeal. Normally, Mushipi said, that appeal focuses on funding program that provides meals to kids who receive free and reduced lunch at school during the summer months when school is not in session.

“So what do we do now? Split it up between food for kids and eggs?” she said. “So the kids are going to have to get less so people can still have eggs? We're trying to figure out how we're going to navigate that.”

The cuts were made as part of an ongoing effort by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who leads the controversial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to reduce what they deem to be wasteful spending by federal government agencies.

Proposed cuts derided by Democrats
During a virtual town hall event held on Friday, March 14, Rhode Island’s all-Democrat Congressional delegation joined executives from the Rhode Island Community Food bank and the Economic Progress Institute to sound an alarm regarding the potential consequences of long-term federal budget cuts that have been proposed by Congressional Republicans.

The majority of the town hall focused on what Democratic leaders feared would be the potential local impact of cuts included within a draft budget reconciliation bill for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2025, which was recently passed by the Republican-majority U.S. House of Representatives in February but would likely be subject to changes made when the U.S. Senate presents its own budget bill.

On the proverbial chopping block — at least for now — includes $880 billion in cuts to the Energy and Commerce Committee, $330 billion in cuts to the Education and Workforce Committee, and $230 billion in cuts to the Agricultural Committee; all of which would be achieved over the course of 10 years.

Rhode Island’s federal delegates argued that such large cuts could only be assumed to come mostly as a result of slashing programs like Medicaid, which is overseen by Energy and Commerce Committee, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is overseen by the Agricultural Committee.

“There is no way they’re going to hit that target of $230 billion without deep cuts to SNAP, to food assistance for people who need it — particularly children,” said Rep. Seth Magaziner. “The cruelty of it is just unimaginable.”

According to Weayonnoh Nelson-Davies, Executive Director of the Economic Progress Institute, there were around 90,000 households (amounting to 144,000 adults, seniors, and children) who receive SNAP benefits in Rhode Island.

“Well-established programs like SNAP, as well as newer programs like the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement and Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement, have been proven to help create an essential local food economy while increasing food security,” said Natalie Varrallo, Managing Director of Farm Fresh Rhode Island, in a press release. “Cutting these programs will have a devastating impact on Rhode Island's food system.”

Medicaid faces similar uncertainty
Rhode Island representatives made a similar argument in regards to Medicaid funding.

“Republicans targeted $880 billion in cuts to the account that includes Medicaid. You can’t get to that number without enormous cuts to Medicaid,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. “This attack on Medicaid hits real people, in real ways…Everybody knows somebody who is receiving Medicaid.”

According to Nelson-Davies, 324,000 Rhode Islanders were enrolled in Medicaid (which provides healthcare services to low-income earners, children, the elderly, pregnant women, and people with disabilities) in 2024, including 87,000 children and 29,000 seniors, coming at a cost of around $3.4 billion; two-thirds of which is paid for by the federal government. Rhode Island received $2.17 billion in Medicaid funding in 2023.

With the proposed cuts, Nelson-Davies reported that Rhode Island could see a total reduction in federal Medicaid funding amounting to $300 million, which the state would then ostensibly be responsible for making up.

A request for comment from Joe Powers, Chairman of the Rhode Island GOP, was not immediately answered.