Trump food-program cuts will slash San Antonio Food bank’s budget by $3 million

The San Antonio Food Bank will lose $3 million in federal funding — or roughly 20% of its annual food-purchasing budget — due to program shutdowns ordered by the Trump administration, the Express-News reports.

The cuts come as the nonprofit is already bracing for a jump in demand because of economic instability created by the White House’s trade wars and its massive and ongoing layoffs of federal employees.

“These tariffs, these job cuts will impact an important building block of life for people in San Antonio — and that’s food, that’s nourishment,” Food Bank CEO Eric Cooper told the Current earlier this month. “That will cause hunger in our community.”

The new budget cuts are the result of the U.S. Department of Agriculture last week ending pandemic-era programs that provided $1 billion annually to combat food insecurity, according to the Express-News. One of those programs helped the San Antonio Food Bank buy from local farmers and ranchers.

In his comments to the Current, Cooper said Trump’s tariffs won’t just drive up demand but also the amount his group pays for food it distributes to families in need. In 2023, Mexico supplied 63% of U.S. vegetable imports and 47% of U.S. fruit and nut imports, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Food Bank’s annual food-purchase budget is $14.5 million, or roughly a third of its overall budget of $43 million, the Express-News reports.

“It’s going to be a difficult year for us,” Cooper told the daily of the timing of the federal cuts.

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This article appears in Mar 5-18, 2025.