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State officials, food banks back $8 million in proposed funding for PAS and State Food Purchase Program
Summary
Department of Agriculture officials and Feeding Pennsylvania told the committee that the Pennsylvania Agricultural Surplus System (PAS) and the State Food Purchase Program help reduce waste and feed low-income residents; Governor Shapiro's budget proposes a combined $8 million increase for the two programs.
Karen Long Earle, director of the Bureau of Food Assistance at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, and Julie Bancroft, CEO of Feeding Pennsylvania, told the House Agriculture & Rural Affairs Committee that the state’s PAS and State Food Purchase Program help move surplus local food into the charitable food network.
Karen Long Earle said the PAS program, launched in 2015, has sourced more than 35,000,000 pounds of Pennsylvania-produced food for distribution to low-income residents. The Department of Agriculture contracts with Feeding Pennsylvania to help administer PAS and source products from Pennsylvania farmers.
Bancroft described Feeding Pennsylvania’s network of nine food banks that rescue and distribute more than 231,000,000 pounds of food annually. She and other witnesses praised Governor Shapiro’s budget proposal to add $4,000,000 to the State Food Purchase Program and $4,000,000 to the PAS program (an $8,000,000 total increase). Testimony said the funds would help food banks purchase local, nutritious foods and supply pantries and meal programs across all 67 counties.
Witnesses also provided prevalence data for hunger and charitable-food demand: the department cited an estimate that at least 1,500,000 Pennsylvanians were food insecure in 2022 and that Pennsylvania food banks were serving an average of approximately 570,000 individuals per week in 2024. Testimony linked these needs to the risk of proposed federal cuts to programs such as SNAP and to the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which relies on federal funding and affects distributions available to food banks.
Ending: Committee members were provided written testimony and data. Witnesses asked legislators to consider the proposed state investments as a complement and backstop to federal programs and to support the PAS and State Food Purchase Program funding increase in the upcoming budget cycle.
