Advertisement
Boston's Morning Newsletter
Trump administration cancels millions for Mass. farm-to-school food program
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
Another warm weekend is on our radar. But first, the news:
Food fight: Massachusetts is bracing for the effects of the Trump administration’s decision to cancel $1 billion meant to help schools pay for food from local producers. Gov. Maura Healey says the state will lose out on over $12 million. And as WBUR’s Amy Sokolow reports, the ripple effects are expected to rock some local farmers.
- The backstory: Last fall, the Biden administration announced a $1.13 billion expansion of programs to reimburse food banks, schools and child care centers that purchase food from local producers. The idea was to create a food supply chain that didn’t rely just on large food companies and to connect schools with farmers selling nutritious products, from fruits and vegetables to ground meat and tortillas. More than 125 different Massachusetts farms and over half of the state’s school districts participated, according to Simca Horwitz, the co-director of the organization Massachusetts Farm to School. “It helped increase healthy food access for kids,” Horwitz said. “It was also making great investments in local producers.”
- Why was the funding cut? According to the Trump administration, the program “no longer effectuates” the priorities of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The USDA announced last Friday it would cancel the most recent round of money under a clause that allowed them to back out within 60 days of the agreement.
- Now what? School districts — already struggling with high costs — will likely have to turn to larger farms from other parts of the country to get competitively priced food, Horwitz said. Ashley Randle, the state’s agricultural commissioner, called it “devastating” to small farmers that had begun to invest, plant crops and hire staff based on the contracts. “It created new markets for the food that they were producing,” Randle told WBUR’s John Bender. “Many of them were actually able to buy land and have some security in the sense that they were continuing to grow a product and they had an outlet for it.”
- The big picture: The canceled funding is just one piece of an increasingly concerning puzzle for small farmers, according to Karen Schwalbe, the head of the Massachusetts Farm Bureau Association. Schwalbe worries that likely cuts to other federal grants that support farmers — as well as rising fertilizer prices due to tariffs — could hurt farmers even more. “The uncertainty is probably the biggest factor for farmers right now,” she said.
North of the border: After three terms as New Hampshire’s first woman governor and three terms as the state’s first woman U.S. senator, Jeanne Shaheen is calling it a career. The 78-year-old Democrat announced yesterday she won’t seek reelection in 2026.
- Now what? Some pundits characterized the news as a “blow for Democrats,” since it opens up a Senate seat in a purple-ish state — and comes a day after popular former Republican governor Chris Sununu reopened the door to running next year. However, others argued it’s actually a smart move to maximize the odds Democrats hold the seat, since midterm elections historically favor out-of-power parties. Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas is already considering a run, Axios reports.
- Fun fact: Shaheen is the first woman in American history elected to serve both a state’s governor and U.S. senator.
Add another to the list: UMass Chan Medical School is freezing hiring and mulling layoffs due to federal funding uncertainty caused by the Trump administration. WBUR’s Deborah Becker reports the state medical school could lose up to $50 million a year if Trump’s cap on federal funding for research from the National Institutes of Health takes effect (it’s being challenged in court).
- Zoom out: Harvard and MIT also recently imposed hiring freezes due to the uncertainty, and Boston University (which owns WBUR’s broadcast license) has moved to slow spending.
The free ride is ending for electric car drivers in Worcester. Starting early next month, drivers will have to pay 30 cents per kilowatt hour to use the city’s free public chargers. The city says that’s still 25% cheaper than the equivalent amount of gas.
P.S.— The first full lunar eclipse in three years will be visible tonight, though us on the East Coast will have to stay up late (or get up early) to see it. Read NPR’s full guide on the “blood worm moon” eclipse for more on its timing, plus other FAQs here.
