Clark County Food Bank faces ‘impactful’ funding cuts due to federal policies, tariffs

VANCOUVER, Wash. (KOIN) – Between federal funding cuts and new tariff policies, food banks are trying to keep up and waiting to see how they will be impacted.

Emily Straw, president of the Clark County Food Bank, said one of the biggest challenges they are facing is how little they know. What they do know is that a couple of their key funding sources — the local food purchasing agreement and the emergency food assistance program — are being cut.

Straw said they stand to lose around $900,000 over the next two years because of it.

“That’s about $900,000 worth of products that was going to come here that’s no longer going to come here,” she said. “So that’s impactful. In addition to that, there’s been some truckloads of federal food that’s been canceled. So, some actual products that just would have landed that we wouldn’t have paid for directly, that it’s not coming here.”

In the past, grant funding has allowed the food bank to buy from local farms. And while Straw said they have built relationships they want to maintain, they are not sure if they will be able to.

“That product is really good product,” she said. “It’s some of the top quality product you can possibly get. It comes at a price tag that we probably can’t afford to just replace like that.”

For now, Straw does not know exactly how the tariffs will impact them. Years ago, they had gotten help from the Trade Mitigation Program, where the government stepped in to help farmers adjust to market disruptions from tariffs.

“The federal government said, ‘Oh, we need to support our local farmers and purchase a ton of extra product,’” Straw said. “And that came to food banks, because I don’t know where else it would go. So I think that’s part of our like wait and see is though we’ve heard some things are going to be cut, we’re hopeful that other things might be bolstered.”

Straw said these new tariffs could prompt more help like that, which would be a good thing for food banks. They are not sounding the alarm yet, but Straw said they do need to figure out how they will replace the money they are losing.

“We’re really trusting our community,” she said. “We’re moving forward with some contingency plans. We are fundraising to recoup the funding that was lost. It is significant. I can’t scoff at $900,000 worth of funding that was coming our way. That’s very substantial to us. But yeah, we’re not– we’ll still be here to see another day.”

With all this change, Straw said they are balancing being proactive and being reactive. She said she does not want to get flat footed, but they also do not want to panic.