Food banks are scrambling after the Trump administration scrapped what it calls the USDA’s “inefficient annual food security survey,” which provides data on the lack of access to adequate nutrition for low-income Americans. But Salvation Army Miami, one out of many food banks that rely on the USDA report, is coming up with a plan to feed the city’s low-income communities.
The Trump administration canceled the 30-year-old USDA report, calling the data redundant and saying the prevalence of food insecurity remains unchanged.
But President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, passed this summer, expanded the work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. According to the Congressional Budget Office, this would leave 2.4 million Americans without food aid.
“It’s one thing to say that report is inefficient,” said Major Gene Hogg, the area commander for Salvation Army Miami. “Let’s take a look at that. But just to throw it out?”
In data released by Feeding America, about 15% of Miami-Dade’s population already lacks consistent access to nutritious food. The statewide average, in comparison, is 14.4%.
However, Salvation Army Miami already has a solution in mind. “Meals That Matter,” a program that launches on Oct. 14 and plans to serve at least one hot meal a week to low-income individuals and senior citizens.
“Our goal is to serve a thousand meals a week,” said Hogg. “Eventually, we want to do a thousand meals a day.”
But the organization is still reeling from previous USDA cuts in April, which canceled truckloads of nutritious food to Farmshare, Florida’s largest independent food bank. Since then, Salvation Army Miami has been receiving perishable food deliveries from Farmshare twice a month instead of weekly.
In an interview with WLRN in April, the organization’s director of development, Katelyn Pounds, revealed that the Center of Hope, their Allapattah food pantry, sometimes received poor produce from Farm Share. In other cases, the Center of Hope would run out of fresh produce to share by the end of the week because the items would expire quickly.
Five months later, the amount of nutritious food they receive from Farmshare to fill their grocery packages for low-income communities has severely diminished.
“We used to have fish fillets and eggs and gallons of milk and greens and fruits even,” said Pounds. “And I know last week, we had just grapes. This week was just green bell peppers.”
With the scrapping of the USDA’s food security reports, Hogg says there would be a significant data gap that would impact long-term care and strategy for low-income communities in Miami. The loss of data means they could underestimate the demand for grocery packages in the community, and the issue of not having enough supply could become worse.
“Now the bags are becoming more scarce,” said Hogg. “And so people are beginning to say, ‘Is it worth walking down the street?,’”
The last USDA Food Security report will be released on Oct. 22.
