Texarkana food banks dealing with cancelled shipments of food from USDA

TEXARKANA, Ark. (KTAL/KMSS) – Harvest Regional Food Bank is one many food banks who have had shipments of food from the U.S. Department of Agriculture cancelled. Though the shipments total about 30%of the food bank’s total supply, they stress they are still currently meeting the hunger needs of the community.

“We just want to you know really assure the public we’re still here to fill the need. We have a strong community base, community support. So you know we’ll just be purchasing more food in the meantime.” says Harvest Regional Food Bank’s Executive Director, Camille Wrinkle.

She say they are always looking at new funding sources to supplement resources given by the community.

“We may have to kind of use some grant funding to be allocated towards direct food distribution right now but we’ve done that in the past with COVID.” says Wrinkle.

Though there is some uncertainty about the future, the hope is the shipments will resume again soon.

“I’m hopeful and optimistic that these will not be permanent cancellations that these are on hold temporarily.” says Wrinkle, “We’re really trying to take things day by day cross those bridges when we get there.”

They say food banks are used to having to be flexible.

“Whether it’s a natural disaster or whether supply chain issues result in delays or whether we have USDA cuts like we’re having right now.” says Wrinkle.

The East Texas Regional Food Bank is also feeling the effects of cuts, saying canceled deliveries have cost them 360,000 pounds of food.

“In the short term, the ETFB will have to purchase additional food to make up for the losses of federal funding and food so we can still feed our hungry neighbors. We are hopeful that these cuts will be short lived and restored in the future.” says East Texas Food Bank CEO David Emerson, “In the interim, we will rely on the generosity of East Texans to help us weather this storm.”