‘This shelf is empty’: Federal funding cuts hit Bellingham Food Bank supply
The Bellingham Food Bank is reporting empty shelves amid a nationwide reduction in federal funding support.
Signs first posted at the food bank about two weeks ago notified visitors of “a list of federal food assistance items we were expecting from April-June that we will not have, (or have less of).“
That list included:
▪ Shelf-stable items such as pitted plums, dried cranberries and canned chicken.
▪ Protein such as eggs, frozen pork chops, turkey breast, chicken breast and chicken leg quarters.
▪ Dairy items such as cheddar cheese and milk.
Bellingham Food Bank Executive Director Mike Cohen told The Herald the losses are a direct result of recent cuts and suspensions to USDA food security programs that were announced in March.
Cohen estimates the value of the amount of lost food over the course of this year to be somewhere between $600,000 and $800,000 for Bellingham Food Bank alone.
“These cuts are coming at a time when there’s unprecedented need, and that’s not a surprise. It’s true in Bellingham, in Whatcom County, in Washington state and across the country,” Cohen said.
Bellingham Food Bank is serving about 5,000 households each week and is purchasing more food than any other food bank in Washington, Cohen told The Herald.
“It’s one of those years where if everything stayed even in terms of food coming in and revenue coming in, we’d still be going backward because need is going up and cost of purchasing food is going up. To have that further impacted by losing some pretty significant food and funding streams at the federal level is making things even harder for the people who are coming to the food bank for their most basic needs,” Cohen said.
Cohen told The Herald he is also concerned about communities potentially seeing cuts to food stamps, which would have additional wide-reaching impacts.
“If that is cut, it will have a dramatic impact on people’s access to food because that’s the most effective hunger relief program in the country,” Cohen said. “It would make even more people come to the food bank where there could be even less food than there is now.”
Cohen encouraged community members to communicate concerns about food-security funding cuts to their elected officials who can have a direct impact on federal decisions.
Cohen said the Bellingham Food Bank would be in an even worse situation if both the city of Bellingham and Whatcom County had not allocated funding in their budgets to support the organization. Still, both local governments did not provide the full amount requested by the food bank. Cohen said he plans to continue requesting additional funding.
“I wish we could say things have gotten better, but they’ve actually gotten worse,” Cohen said.
Monetary donations go the furthest to support the work that local food banks do, he added.
Bellingham and Whatcom County residents can also participate in the Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive on May 10. Those interested in participating can leave a donation bag of non-perishable food near the mailbox on the second Saturday in May for the letter carrier to pick up and deliver to a local food bank.
This story was originally published April 16, 2025 at 10:15 AM.
