For Brick Goldman, 73, farming isn’t just his career.
It’s a way of life that has been passed down through six generations. But now, a recent round of federal cuts could threaten his livelihood, causing his 250-acre Charlotte County farm southwest of Richmond to lose more than $200,000 in revenue and preventing thousands of pounds of fresh produce from reaching those in need.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture this month announced plans to cancel two pandemic-era programs that give schools and food banks money to buy food from local farms, halting more than $1 billion in federal spending. Virginia would have received an estimated $21.2 million in the next round of grant funding, according to the USDA.
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“It’s scary. It looks like we’ll lose all of that funding with them pulling the money and that’ll hurt us,” Goldman said. “We’ve been out calling on other food distributors trying to pick up that business someplace else.”
“We haven’t found it yet,” he added.
For nearly five years, these federal grants have gone toward shrinking the food insecurity gap for schoolchildren and families across the state, including the city of Richmond. Schools and food pantries purchase and distribute fresh fruits and vegetables that families take home.
So while students are fed at school, they have goods to take home for dinners. During the summer months, this initiative has helped keep families fed and has supported the local farming community at the same time.
The city of Richmond is the only one of the area’s large school systems that receives funding under the program, but it is unclear how much the school system currently receives.
The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said it will fulfill its obligations under the existing grant agreements, which remain in effect through July 15. As of September 2024, the Virginia department has received $13,582,814 for these programs.
Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-4th, criticized the cuts.
“In the name of reducing wasteful spending, (President Donald) Trump and (Elon) Musk are taking food out of hungry kids’ mouths and money out of Virginia farmers’ pockets," McClellan said. "Going after programs that keep locally grown produce in our communities does nothing to save Virginians’ money and will just make it harder in areas already struggling to access healthy food.”
The announcement that the next round is not coming is leaving small-scale farmers across Virginia facing revenue losses they had not planned for — and planning is a vital part of farming.
“If we’re going to be supplying them with vegetables in July, we have to be planting those vegetables right now,” Goldman said. “If they decide they want to reinstate the program in July, that’ll be too late for us.”
Pierson Geyer, general manager of Agriberry Farm in Hanover County, stood among the dozens of rows of blackberry and raspberry bushes on his farm on Wednesday morning as he talked about how the Local Food Purchase Assistance program has allowed his farm to connect students and others in need with fresh fruit.
“Throughout the winter, we connect young people with apples, getting them in (Goochland, Richmond and Fluvanna schools), getting fruit down to the Petersburg area and making sure that people have … good fruit, and also that we’re able to support our annual full-time team with winter revenue that lets us be a more responsible employer and have people more completely engaged in agriculture as their career,” Geyer said.
He said the canceled grants are among a number of federal actions — like tariffs — that are affecting farmers.
“When you can’t count on a financial commitment from an entity you’ve been able to count on forever, when you can’t count on the policy of today matching the words of today or the words of tomorrow, when that volatility is there, businesses can’t plan,” Geyer said. “The plan was always for (the LFPA grants) to continue.”
“I don’t know if the people making decisions have plans and, if they do, they’re not being very well-communicated because it’s causing all this volatility. I just don’t see any winners here.”
Lulu’s Local Food, an online farmers market that serves as the go-between for local farmers and consumers — including food pantries and local school systems — received about $1.5 million from an LFPA grant in 2022.
Through the grant, Lulu’s has fed 500,000 people in need in south-central Virginia, serving more than 700,000 pounds of food from 137 local farmers. The food goes to 38 food pantries, 12 churches and eight school districts, among other places.
The grant runs through July, and Lulu’s had planned to apply for the next year of funding based on the success of the program in getting fresh food to underserved communities.
“This is going to be devastating to the farmers as well as to the people who were getting food,” said Molly Harris, the founder of Lulu’s. “Come mid-July, when you’re in the middle of all the tomatoes and the cucumbers and the squash and fabulous produce coming in, it’s all going to come to an end. Farmers have been planning for this to continue on.”
Harris said her long-term goal had always been to make the program she runs more sustainable.
“We were hoping that it was going to be more of a gradual transfer, rather than just jumping off a cliff,” Harris said.
Lulu’s provides food to Richmond Public Schools, which enrolls about 21,000 students — two-thirds of whom are considered economically disadvantaged, a rough gauge of poverty measured by the state. With many Richmond students living in food deserts, this initiative has been crucial in getting nutritional food into their hands, Harris said.
While the loss of this program will have an impact on food insecure children, RPS’ Chief Wellness Officer Renesha Parks said the division will continue to work to increase food access to its students.
“Easy access to nutritional, delicious foods sets students up for a lifetime of good health,” Parks said. “We’ve seen tremendous benefits to having fresh produce in our schools, and will continue to work with our partners to provide such options.”