Federal funding cuts leave Minnesota food shelves scrambling

NINA MOINI: Food shelves are scrambling to find other sources of food after federal funding cuts. For Prism Food Shelf in Golden Valley, the cuts come at a time of growing need. So joining me now is Alisha Weis, the advancement director with Prism. Thanks so much for your time this afternoon, Alisha.

ALISHA WEIS: Thanks for having me.

NINA MOINI: Well, I know you’re certainly not alone. We all know that there has just been this immense growing need and continues to be across the state of Minnesota and beyond. But can you tell me about the federal programming that was providing the food to your food shelf, and what has happened in that process.

ALISHA WEIS: Yeah. So the program you’re talking about is TEFAP, which is the federal– the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which is a federal program that provides some resources to Food Shelf to purchase necessities, staples such as lean proteins, nuts, nut butters, fruits, veggies, kind of all the things that we typically would have in our shelves at home.

NINA MOINI: And so when did you find out about these cuts? Did they come as a surprise? Had you been maybe preparing or thinking this might happen?

ALISHA WEIS: At Prism, we are always looking around and trying to identify new risks that are coming up. But these cuts kind of came out of nowhere. There has not been a ton of communication from the USDA or the TEFAP program itself.

There was a news article that found that the Department of Children, Youth, and Families simply saw that some of the orders for the TEFAP program were canceled by the federal government. So there’s a lot of uncertainty at this time. We’re getting emails from our contacts at The Food Group, which is our TEFAP provider, every week, just to give some updates. And there’s not as many answers as we would have hoped.

NINA MOINI: What does it mean in terms of just the amount of food? How big of a hit is this for you?

ALISHA WEIS: So what we do know from The Food Group is they’re saying it’s about a 30% to 40% decrease of food that’s available for us to purchase. Every month, we get about 6,000 pounds of food from TEFAP. So 30% to 40% of that is, 1,800 to 2,400 pounds. And that’s a lot of food for a small organization like Prism. And we’re really having to try to diversify our opportunities to purchase from other places, do other food drives. And we’re really just trying to do everything we can to make sure we have the resources for participants.

NINA MOINI: Is it harder to access perishable foods, vegetables, meat, dairy? Is that a harder process?

ALISHA WEIS: Absolutely. When people donate to food shelves, I think the normal, easy thing to donate is a can of soup or a bowl of– or a box of cereal. It is much harder to access the lean proteins, fruits, vegetables, and those are a lot of the things that we get from TEFAP. TEFAP has a portion, which is the Commodity Credit Corporation aspect of TEFAP, which purchases food from farmers to then be distributed to the Food Shelf. So without this resource, we are struggling with some of the fresh perishable items.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And then on top of that, just the rising cost of living, the years upon years now that the need has been growing in terms of hunger across the state. And this fact from your website really struck me, that there were 20 to 30 first time families visiting every day. That is so striking to me. 30 new families every day or people every day. What do you think about that?

ALISHA WEIS: Yeah. 30 new families a day is the highest that we’ve ever seen here at Prism, and each new family that comes in, we have a trained case manager that will sit down and meet with that participant to talk through what’s happening, what other resources we can connect them to. So yes, that’s 30 new people that are getting food, but that’s also 30 people that we’re sitting down with to help get them connected with other resources.

In total, we’re seeing about 500 visits to the Food Shelf every day. And we as an organization are just really trying to do everything in our power to make sure that we have the necessary food on the shelves for these families to connect them to other resources. The numbers, I don’t think, are going to go down anytime soon, and we are just going to continue to try to work as hard as we can to help these families.

NINA MOINI: And what does that look like, Alisha? Where else can an organization like yours turn to try to fill some of that need?

ALISHA WEIS: The best place for us to turn is individuals and families. Prism is not alone in this, as you mentioned earlier. We are feeling this and so many other food shelves are feeling this as well. At Prism, our highest funding source is individuals and families. That’s who’s doing a lot of our community food drives. And so I would say if anyone has the ability in this moment, please consider giving to your local food shelf. The food that we get at Prism, the food we get today, goes out the door today or tomorrow.

We are really making sure that families are getting what they need. And the hard part from a procurement standpoint is there’s not a lot of resources for us to purchase a lot of foods. We have the food banks, which is really great and they allow us to purchase in bulk. But it’s the individual donations that we receive from the community that allows us to provide choice and some diversity in the products that are on the shelves for our participants.

NINA MOINI: Is it best right now to give financial contributions or items, food?

ALISHA WEIS: In this moment, being that there’s so many unknowns with our food purchasing ability, I would say the best thing would be give physical items. When you go to the grocery store, grab a few extra items and drop them off at your local food shelf. People always ask, what’s the best thing to give? And I say the same things that you’re eating and that you’re putting in your cart for your families is the same thing that our participants are wanting. And again, those individual donations provide us choice for us to put on the food shelf.

NINA MOINI: Excuse me. I know seniors have been among growing groups. We’re talking about 30 new families a day. A lot of people who’ve just been living paycheck to paycheck who find themselves in a situation where it’s just hard to make groceries work. I’m curious, what would be your suggestion to anybody who’s listening? And you don’t want people not to come because they think you’re going to run out. What would you say to people who have maybe never visited a food shelf and are thinking about that process?

ALISHA WEIS: Using a food shelf is a form of asking for help, and we know that that’s always a hard component. And so I would just encourage families to reach out if they’re in need of help. Using food shelves allows families to stretch their own budgets a little bit further.

We know that the food that you received, at least here at Prism, isn’t going to meet all of your food needs for the month, but it’ll give you some pantry staples. It’ll give you some meat, some dairy, some eggs. That can help you then stretch your budget to purchase other foods, or maybe just do something fun with your family that you haven’t been able to do for a while because people are just living paycheck to paycheck.

NINA MOINI: And before I let you go, are you doing other things as an organization to prepare for perhaps even higher costs with tariffs in effect and the uncertainty around the stock market? What else are you doing to prepare?

ALISHA WEIS: We are doing everything that we can. Hosting more community food drives, really ramping up our connections that we have with the local businesses and congregations that support Prism. We have an annual fundraiser coming up in May.

So really just trying to do as much as we can to get out into the community to talk about the need, not just to talk about it from a sense of donations or partnering with Prism, but also to let participants know and others in the community that might be struggling that Prism is a welcoming space for people. If they need food, they’re going to leave with what they need when they come to Prism.

NINA MOINI: Alisha, thank you so much for your work and for stopping by. Really appreciate your time.

ALISHA WEIS: Thank you so much for having me.

NINA MOINI: Alisha Weis is the advancement director of Prism, a food shelf in Golden Valley.