Feeding San Diego says it expects local organizations and food pantries who rely on federal government funding will now turn to their non-profit for help.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's announcement this month it will cancel $1 billion in funding for two federal programs could have an impact on families in San Diego.

The Local Food for Schools program and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement (LFPA) are the two programs losing funding. 

Feeding San Diego uses LFPA to purchase food from San Diego farmers. Robert Kamensky, CEO of Feeding San Diego said the cuts could be really difficult on them.

"The impact is not just on the food supply to us that goes into the community, but now you're looking at local dollars that were being spent for them, going away," he said. "And the potential that those small farmers may be driven out of business, which is then further going to impact our local agricultural community."

Feeding San Diego is almost entirely run on donations from private donors.  But Kamensky suspects other food banks or organizations who depend on government funding, could lean on them for help.

"You're going to you will see more people fall into the 'not for profit safety net' versus 'federal safety' nets. As the federal safety net opens up its netting, they're going to fall through, and we're going to try to catch them," he said. 

According to Kamensky, the non-profit feeds 150,000 families per month.

Thursday morning, Congressman Mike Levin paid a visit to Feeding San Diego to talk with Kamensky for a better understanding of how these cuts could affect San Diegans.

"The cuts could be really devastating," said Congressman Levin.

"We're meeting at a really interesting time," he added. "Yesterday, the president made major announcements on tariffs. Part of what that means, is that our global supply chain includes our food supply chain and increased prices of groceries, imported groceries means higher food prices. And that will mean more people will need help, and will be turning to places like this."

He said roughly 1/5 of San Diegans do not have enough food. 

Congressman Levin said he and his colleagues have reached out to the Department of Agriculture to demand why these cuts were made. He said they're hoping to be able to do something through the appropriations process. 

Feeding San Diego is asking the public, if you are able to donate, please do so.

Source - https://www.cbs8.com