Charlie Thompson, executive director of Fishline food bank in Poulsbo, said they have seen a 20% increase in families over the last year that has put a “real strain on their capacity.” The food bank expects to give out over a million pounds of food this year, he said, about double what it was doing pre-pandemic.
Thompson described the current situation as “death by a thousand cuts.” Several food assistance programs are being reduced or being cut. The Trump Administration has cut The Emergency Food Assistance Program, also known as TEFAP and reduced spending for SNAP benefits, commonly called food stamps.
A million Washington SNAP beneficiaries will see their benefits reduced by an average of $56 per month, according to a statement by Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson. With fewer dollars to spend via food stamps, residents are expected to lean more heavily on food banks, Thompson said, which will have “less food to offer.”
Originally published in the Kitsap Sun, August 24, 2025
Farming only a short drive from two densely populated and affluent suburbs, Lousia Brown rarely has trouble finding a market for the spinach, kale, lettuce and other produce she grows. At the Poulsbo Farmers Market, it is not abnormal for her to sell out.
Brown, 64, says the location of Pumphouse Farm, on a North Kitsap property she has tended to for 25 years, is one reason her business has weathered recent economic trepidation. Another more troubling contributor, she posits, is the competition seems to only get slimmer.
“Farmers are dropping out,” she says. “The demand is there, but it’s hard to keep going.”
And more turbulence is on the horizon. Funding for a popular, federal program that paid local producers to grow produce for food banks was abruptly axed by the Trump Administration earlier this year, cutting a critical revenue source for local farms as demand at food banks reached an all-time highs.
Over the next few months the Kitsap Conservation District will spend the remaining $40,000 provided by the Local Farm Purchasing Assistance program, a Biden-era initiative that benefited over a dozen Kitsap farms and eight regional food banks in the past three years.
“We probably have enough to get us through this growing season,” said Diane Fish, a program coordinator for the conservation district who is overseeing local distribution. “From there, it’s a sad story.”
Equally concerned about the loss are food banks. The LFPA program offered a lifeline, providing thousands of pounds of additional food during a period of record demand following the pandemic. Significantly less food is anticipated to enter food banks, while the need only expected rises after the Trump Administration’s decision to cut several food assistance programs.
“There will be fewer fresh local products and less culturally familiar food available at hunger relief organizations,” Jeff Mathias, farm to community specialist lead for the Washington Department of Agriculture, wrote in an email. “At the same time, the need for food assistance is at an all-time high.”
Federal money meant to eliminate food waste
Responding to supply chain hiccups created by the pandemic, the United State Department of Agriculture launched the LFPA program in July 2022. The initiative gave out $900 million to all 50 states under the stipulation they used those funds to buy locally grown foods – a majority of which came from unrepresented groups in agriculture – and distribute them at hunger relief agencies like food banks.
In Washington, those funds have reached all 39 counties, 32 tribal organizations, 255 food banks and 461 hunger relief agencies, according to the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
Kitsap County alone has received over $200,000, Fish says, and that has made a huge difference for producers. The Kitsap Conservation District has participated in a state funded farm-to-pantry program, which is similar to LFPA, but nets much less money. In recent years they’ve gotten $11,000 to $12,000 or so annually.
Farmers estimate months in advance how much to grow for the upcoming season. It is a difficult balancing act, even for experienced farmers, that can inevitably leave unsold, but edible crops with no buyer. Often these foods wind up as compost or animal feed.
LFPA dollars eliminate a lot of this waste, Fish said. One farmer, for example, had a grocery store cancel an order of winter squash. They bought all 500 pounds of the crop for the food banks. Another producer had 50 pounds of surplus spinach that they scooped up.
Knowing extra food could easily be sold to the food bank, it incentivized farmers to grow more and provided a boom for business, Fish said. For some farms selling to the food bank comprised between 20-30% of their income over the past few years.
“There was no uncertainty,” Fish said. “you know, regardless of how many people are going to come to the farmer’s market, you knew that you were gonna be able to sell it.”
Carrying broad support, the Biden Administration announced a plan to extend the LFPA program. In December, the USDA pledged an additional $1.13 billion for it and a companion initiative providing food for schools. Both have now been squashed.
The Trump Administration walked that initiative back this spring, telling the news website Politico, the programs “no longer effectuate the goals of the agency” and that previously announced funds would no longer be available.
The Kitsap Conservation District now has until the end of the year to allocate its remaining funds. The timing has been far from ideal. Farmers, assuming the additional LFPA funding would be available, had already made plans for the upcoming season.
“When March rolled around, and the Trump Administration killed [LFPA], they’d already put seeds in the ground,” Fish said.
At food banks, ‘you can’t survive off ramen’
That loss will be a major blow to food banks. Chris Benson, Executive Director of the Central Kitsap Foodbank in Silverdale, said they got 2,800 pounds of fresh produce last October and another 7,800 pounds in June.
That will now drop to 300 pounds per month, he said.
They will also lose out on fresh, nutrition-rich produce, which can be a challenge to get for some food banks. Food drives or donations most frequently consist of nonperishables and processed foods.
“I get that ramen works in a crunch,” Benson said, “but you can’t survive off of ramen, not in a healthy manner.”
The Bremerton Foodline did not respond by publication time, but in a social media post the agency wrote it was saddened that LFPA funding was ending, writing “for a community facing high rates of diabetes and heart related condition fresh, nearby-harvested food isn’t just a treat – it’s vital.”
The amount of dollars lost will be almost impossible for food banks to backfill. Plus, many will now supplement the losses with their own dollars, meaning less to spend elsewhere.
Some food banks said they would be less affected by the cuts. Pam Leazer, executive director of the Gig Harbor Peninsula Fish Foodbank said her agency had not benefited from these funds. Jennifer Hardison, of the South Kitsap Helpline in Port Orchard, said they have enough relationships with individual producers to avoid significant impacts.
Still, nearly all foodbanks in the region are facing a growing demand for their services.
After pandemic-era benefits, expanding who qualified for food assistance programs, expired food banks across the region saw an almost immediate uptick in shoppers. Central Kitsap, for example, saw a 46% increase in families, Benson said, going from serving 20 to 30 families on average day to now providing for nearly 60.
Charlie Thompson, executive director of Fishline food bank in Poulsbo, said they have seen a 20% increase in families over the last year that has put a “real strain on their capacity.” The food bank expects to give out over a million pounds of food this year, he said, about double what it was doing pre-pandemic.
Thompson described the current situation as “death by a thousand cuts.” Several food assistance programs are being reduced or being cut. The Trump Administration has cut The Emergency Food Assistance Program, also known as TEFAP and reduced spending for SNAP benefits, commonly called food stamps.
A million Washington SNAP beneficiaries will see their benefits reduced by an average of $56 per month, according to a statement by Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson. With fewer dollars to spend via food stamps, residents are expected to lean more heavily on food banks, Thompson said, which will have “less food to offer.”
“It’s a really difficult situation and I know Fishline and other food banks in Kitsap, we’re all putting our heads together to brainstorm ways that we can get more food for our shelf so we can meet what we believe is going to be an ongoing need,” he said.
“When the SNAP cuts are realized it’s going to be another cliff moment where we see just this real spike, I think, in people coming more frequently. Many of them are already coming, but they’re going to need more support.”
Farmers that still believe in growing
Amid the drop in funding the Kitsap Conservation District plans to launch a donation fund to support a local farm-to-food bank, Fish said, but cautioning that “nothing is going to replace the tremendously positive impact of LFPA” dollars.
Brown, the Indianola farmer, says she will not close as a result of the drop in LFPA funds. Selling to the food banks accounts for about 15% of her revenue, she said. Not insignificant, but she has other avenues for sales, including farmers markets, her food stand, Kitsap Fresh and a store in Indianola.
The loss of the LFPA dollars though is still difficult. Brown is a large proponent of giving her produce to the food bank and allowing those with lower incomes to enjoy her foods.
That program is a general good for the community, but prioritizing the foodbank as part of her business, without LFPA funds, is now more challenging.
Profits were never as good as selling to retail, she said, but there was always a return. Now she has decided if financially, that option still makes sense.
“It’s hard because I really do believe in it,” she said.