Ozarks Food Harvest sounds alarm on USDA cuts

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Officials with Ozarks Food Harvest Inc. say the nonprofit is facing "a challenging year" amid millions of dollars' worth of federal food cuts.

The Springfield-based nonprofit announced in a news release yesterday that it would lose an estimated $3 million worth of food this year due to U.S. Department of Agriculture cuts. The release specifically points to $500 million cut late last month from The Emergency Food Assistance Program.

“Our community and network of charities can’t afford to fill this gap, so they’ll be relying on the food bank for help,” said Jordan Browning, director of communications at Ozarks Food Harvest, in the release. “With the increased cost of groceries and food insecurity at a 10-year high, Ozarks Food Harvest will face a challenging year to meet the increased demand for food across a third of the state of Missouri.”

The TEFAP decision comes amid hundreds of millions of dollars in funding eliminations by the USDA for the Local Food for Schools program and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement program.

Ozarks Food Harvest officials recently told Springfield Business Journal that the organization was not directly involved with those USDA programs, but that the people the nonprofit serves would be impacted.

Ozarks Food Harvest, which assists 70,000 people each month with 270 partners covering one-third of the state, is serving roughly 40% more than it did during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This fiscal year, we’ve spent more than $3 million on food, distribution and transportation for our network of 270 charities, which is an increase of $100,000 compared to last year,” Browning told SBJ last month.

TEFAP, a program that connects food from farms to food banks, makes up nearly 25% of the food that Ozarks Food Harvest distributes, according to the release.

Ozarks Food Harvest ranked No. 10 on Springfield Business Journal's list this year of the area's largest local charitable nonprofits, with 85 employees marking its ranking criteria. The nonprofit reported a $50.5 million operating budget and nearly $40 million in funds raised locally during 2024.