The U.S. Department of Agriculture has ended a program that paid Wisconsin farmers to grow fresh produce for food pantries.

The Wisconsin Local Food Purchase Assistance Program was part of a nationwide project that began in 2021 with the goal of supporting local farmers and reducing hunger.

Here’s what to know about the program and why it was canceled.

What was the Wisconsin Local Food Purchase Assistance Program?

Those who used the program described it as a win-win that improved farmers’ bottom lines and promoted healthy eating of locally sourced food.

It was administered through the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. The Wisconsin Farmers Union, the Wisconsin Food Hub Cooperative and Marbleseed, an organic farming nonprofit, were program partners.

The program issued two kinds of grants: One to farmers to help them expand their market reach by working with local hunger relief groups, and one to local organizations to set up programs that purchased Wisconsin-grown or Wisconsin-raised food and gave it for free to people in need.

How many Wisconsin farmers and food pantries participated?

During last year’s growing season, almost 300 farms participated in the program, sending $4.2 million worth of food to more than 250 pantries and schools, according to a news release about the termination from the Wisconsin Farmers Union.

The organizations receiving the food ranged from small, local pantries to major food banks like Feeding Wisconsin and Hunger Task Force, which supplied the food to their own networks of pantries.

Almost 40% of the producers picked to receive funding last year were Black, Indigenous or other people of color, more than half were new or beginning farmers, and 42% of the farms were women-owned. The program was in part aimed at giving historically marginalized groups a leg up in the world of agriculture, which is overwhelmingly white and male.

How did it work?

Once farmers were chosen for the grant, they worked with staff from Marbleseed to create their contract, make projections about how much food they planned to sell, and set their prices. Each farmer was awarded between $5,000 and $25,000 for their contributions.

About once a week during the growing season, a driver from the Wisconsin Food Hub Cooperative would visit the farms and pick up food items that had been packed into boxes for shipping. From there, the boxes would get distributed to individual pantries and food banks. Every county in the state was served by the program.

Why did it end?

In a March 7 termination letter, USDA deputy administrator Jack Tuckwiller wrote that the program “no longer effectuates agency priorities.”

The cancellation comes as President Donald Trump enacts sweeping cost-cutting measures to reduce the size and scope of the federal government.

Jackie Anderson, executive director of Feeding Wisconsin, said in the news release that the elimination of the program was especially disheartening during a time of “significantly increased” need for food bank services. More than 617,000 Wisconsin residents are food-insecure, according to Feeding America.

Madeline Heim is a Report for America corps reporter who writes about environmental issues in the Mississippi River watershed and across Wisconsin. Contact her at 920-996-7266 or mheim@gannett.com.