Sponsors (3)
The bill expands federal support for purchasing local and culturally appropriate foods—boosting nutrition for low-income people and market opportunities for local producers with predictable funding and added oversight—while raising federal costs, increasing administrative complexity, and creating potential distribution and equity trade-offs.
Low-income individuals will gain greater access to fresh, locally sourced, and culturally or religiously appropriate foods through state-funded purchases for emergency feeding, schools, and other food programs.
Small, underserved, and regional agricultural producers (including women-, veteran-, and beginning-farmer operations) will get more procurement opportunities and potential increases in sales and rural jobs by selling to State and USDA programs.
States will have predictable federal funding ($200M per year FY2026–2030) with two-year availability windows to plan and run emergency food purchase programs, enabling better program planning and continuity for food assistance.
Taxpayers may face higher federal spending (estimated about $1 billion over five years) to fund these procurement priorities.
Shifting procurement toward prioritized local or culturally specific products may raise per-unit purchase costs for USDA and State programs, potentially reducing the total quantities of food purchased or increasing program costs.
States, USDA, and vendors will incur additional administrative and implementation burdens (planning, cooperative agreements, new procurement practices, and reporting), which could strain capacity during rollout.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes $200M/year (FY2026–2030) for states to buy priority agricultural products from eligible local producers for emergency food distribution and creates a USDA procurement working group.
Official title: To amend the Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983 to provide additional agricultural products for distribution by emergency feeding organizations; and for other purposes.
Introduced December 12, 2025 by Kim Schrier · Last progress December 12, 2025
Authorizes up to $200 million per year for FY2026–2030 to fund state projects that purchase defined priority agricultural products from eligible local producers and distributors for distribution through emergency feeding organizations, and directs USDA to create a cross-agency working group to expand Department procurement to support diverse producers, culturally relevant foods, local food systems, and rural jobs. Sets timelines for guidance and reporting, requires cooperative agreements and program evaluation, and mandates annual recommendations from the working group to congressional agriculture committees.