Supporting Local Food in the News
A letter from Congressman Mark Alford to the USDA was in the news last week—and so were some local organizations with ties to New Growth.
In March 2025, when USDA terminated two key local food programs—Local Food for Schools (LFS) and Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA)—the ripple effects were felt across the country, especially here in Missouri.
The cuts came just as the growing season began, disrupting the careful planning and business development the programs were designed to support. The ability of local food producers to serve more local markets over time was the goal of the program. It helped schools and food assistance organizations buy from nearby farms, in turn helping those local farm and food businesses build up to supplying larger buyers in the future without food purchasing assistance. Program termination left producers stranded financially.
Kansas City news featured two affected organizations. Each has worked with New Growth and the Heartland Regional Food Business Center, which New Growth manages.
Bridge Over Troubled Waters, a food pantry in Cass County that received business assistance from the Heartland Center, was mentioned directly in the letter. They’re now fighting to stay open. Watch the📺 FOX4 story.
Salmon Enterprises, a beef producer in St. Clair County was left with full freezers on hold. They also lost out on a related grant to expand their business because USDA funding for the Heartland Center is currently frozen. Read the📺 KSHB 41 story.
As Congressman Alford wrote in his letter:
“It is vital that we are helping local farmers find new markets for their produce, and even better when those markets are in the communities around them.”
That’s exactly the work New Growth and the Heartland Center are here to do —connecting local farmers and food producers with the markets and support they need to grow resilient local economies and diversify an accessible local food supply.
The Heartland Regional Food Business Center was funded by a USDA cooperative agreement as a 5 state regional food business center which New Growth directs alongside University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Its funding has been frozen since January 2025.
Twelve regional food business centers across the country work to build resilience into food supply chains after the Covid-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of concentrated global systems that left store shelves empty. The need for regional food business centers hasn’t gone away.
New Growth is committed to finding the resources needed to continue supporting local entrepreneurs—both farm and non-farm—to strengthen our rural communities and create jobs today and for the next generation.
If you'd like to help with this work, we'd like to hear from you. Feel free to explore our website or email us at: info@newgrowthmo.org