The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service awarded $627,837 to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to improve The Emergency Food Assistance Program, commonly known as TEFAP, reach into remote, rural, tribal, and/or low-income areas that are underserved by the program. The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is one of 38 agencies receiving more than $39 million through these grants.
TEFAP is a federal program that helps supplement the diets of low-income Americans by providing them with emergency food assistance at no cost. Through TEFAP, USDA purchases a variety of nutritious, high-quality USDA Foods—nutritious, domestically sourced and produced foods—and makes those foods available to state agencies. States provide the food to local emergency food providers that they have selected, usually food banks, which in turn distribute the food to local organizations, such as soup kitchens and food pantries that directly serve the public. These local organizations then distribute the USDA Foods to eligible recipients for household consumption or use them to prepare and serve meals in a congregate setting.
“USDA is committed to building back better with a food system that works for all those in need, especially communities that are systemically plagued with nutrition insecurity,” said Cindy Long, administrator, USDA Food and Nutrition Service. “These grants are a step in the right direction towards better serving people in remote, rural, tribal and low-income areas with The Emergency Food Assistance Program, providing critical nutrition for those who need it.”
States receiving TEFAP Reach and Resiliency Grants will use funds to implement unique and creative solutions to address potential gaps in TEFAP coverage, and to make critical investments in food distribution infrastructure in underserved areas. Through the grants, USDA is empowering state agencies to better serve those in need of emergency food assistance, especially in communities facing barriers to access. Grant funding was provided through the American Rescue Plan Act, as part of USDA’s Build Back Better Initiative.
The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services will partner with the Federation of Virginia Foodbanks on its TEFAP Reach and Resiliency grant project. The Federation of Virginia Food Banks supports the seven regional food banks in the Virginia/Washington D.C. area. Reach and Resiliency project activities include a contracted analysis of current TEFAP coverage within the Commonwealth and the funding of three sub-grant projects that will be administered at the food bank level by FeedMore/Central Virginia Food Bank, Feeding Southwest Virginia, and Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank. Projects vary by food bank but include supporting mobile distributions, bolstering delivery of TEFAP foods, and expanding cooling/freezing capacity in remote and rural areas.
A full list of awardees and grant amounts can be found on the FNS webpage. This is the first of two rounds of the TEFAP Reach and Resiliency Grants, which combined, will provide up to $100 million in TEFAP investments.
The TEFAP Reach and Resiliency grants are happening concurrently with an initiative by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing service, which is establishing the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program. The LFPA, which also supports the nation’s emergency food system, is part of the “Build Back Better” initiative, authorized by the American Rescue Plan. The purpose of this program is to maintain and improve food and agricultural supply chain resiliency; it will award up to $400 million through non-competitive cooperative agreements with state and tribal governments to support local, regional, and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers through the purchase of domestic local foods.
Both the TEFAP Reach and Resiliency Grants and the LFPA efforts are part of a larger strategy to support the emergency food system. In total, USDA expects to invest approximately $2 billion in the nation’s emergency food system in fiscal year 2022 with a goal of maintaining similar levels of support as in fiscal year 2021. This is in addition to resources from other federal agencies, such as the Department of the Treasury’s Coronavirus Relief Fund, which some states are using to help procure a continuous food supply for food banks and other emergency food providers.
For more information about TEFAP, visit: The Emergency Food Assistance Program | Food and Nutrition Service (usda.gov). For more information about LFPA, visit Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program | Agricultural Marketing Service (usda.gov).
