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Council member inquires about impact of federal funding cuts on school food programs
1:26:47
ยท
101 sec
Council Member Mercedes Narcisse raises concerns about recent federal funding cuts to school food programs and asks how these cuts will affect the Department of Education's budget. Deputy Chancellor Emma Vadehra explains that while the main school breakfast and lunch programs are not affected, a program supporting local food purchasing will be impacted, resulting in a loss of about $8.4 million over two years starting in fiscal year 2026.
- The United States Department of Agriculture cut $1 billion in funding for programs incentivizing schools to buy food from local farms.
- New York City received $8.4 million over two years from this program, which will now be discontinued.
- The main school breakfast and lunch programs, which support universal meals, are not affected by these cuts.
Mercedes Narcisse
1:26:47
Let's go to federal funding.
1:26:50
Earlier this week, the United States Department of Agriculture cut 1,000,000,000 in the funding for two federal programs that incentivize schools and food banks to buy food from local farms.
1:27:05
New York is one of the states that participate in this program.
1:27:09
How will the Department of Education be affected by this funding cut?
1:27:15
Does this funding flow directly to New York City or does it comes from the state?
1:27:22
Does the DOE have an estimate of how much of this funding was recognized in the fiscal year of 2025 budget and out year?
1:27:33
So if you can answer those before I get to my kids question.
Emma Vadehra
1:27:37
Thank you for the question.
1:27:38
So yes, as you said, USDA did cut some of their programs.
1:27:45
Were just to be clear, that was not our big school breakfast and lunch programs, which as I said is over half a billion dollars and is supporting our universal breakfast and lunch.
1:27:55
One of them was a program that we do benefit from, which was to support local food purchasing.
1:28:02
We received about $8,000,000 8 point 4 million dollars over two years, which was last year and this year.
1:28:08
We do still expect to receive those funds.
1:28:12
Most of them we've claimed.
1:28:13
We think we'll be able to receive the rest as well, but it's 8.4 over two years.
1:28:17
What the announcement seems to mean is that they are canceling that program for next year and going forward, and so we will no longer be able to access those funds in FY '20 '6 and going forward.
1:28:28
Wow.