Oregon food banks across the state will lose access to food shipments and leave more Oregonians hungry, advocates say, after the Trump administration suspended a national emergency food program.

The administration halted $500 million in food aid that was slated for U.S. distribution this year. The Oregon Food Bank, which distributes food aid to 21 regional foodbanks and some 1,200 distribution sites, had been allocated 30 truckloads of food beginning in April under the program and another 60 truckloads that would have been delivered from July through December.

Together, the shipments would have comprised some 4.2 million pounds of food – truckloads of chicken, milk, fresh and canned fruits and vegetables – that end up on the shelves of food pantries around the state and provide a vital lifeline for families and individuals struggling with food security.

The program provided almost one-fifth of the food the Oregon Food Bank distributed last year, plus administrative funding to support distribution costs.

The Oregon Food Bank has been receiving food under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s emergency food assistance program since 2023. In 2024, the value of those shipments was $14 million, and it received $1 million in funding to cover administrative costs. The value of this year’s canceled shipments is an estimated $6 million, plus an additional $1 million to support distribution.

The food banks were provided no official reason for the program’s suspension. Last fall, the Biden administration announced that it was investing another $1 billion in the program, said Shannon Oliver, the Oregon Food Bank’s director of operations. She said there was no reason at the time to think the incoming administration would change that. So the organization was caught off guard when it got a notice in February from Feeding America, a national network of food banks, that the program had been frozen, and its food orders disappeared from the program’s portal.

“As the person that’s in charge of making our food projections, I feel like I kind of have to be on the conservative side and assume that it’s not coming back,” Oliver said. “What’s keeping me up at night is how to potentially make this up.”

The supply disruption comes as the organization is seeing a record level of demand amid severe inflation in food prices. Last year its network of food banks and distribution sites around Oregon and southwest Washington saw 2.5 million visits, a 31% increase from the previous year. According to Feed America, about one in eight Oregonians, and one in six children in the state, faces food insecurity.

“The amount we’re distributing right now is not keeping pace with increased pantry visits and increased need out in the community,” Oliver said.

She said it was highly unlikely that traditional donors and local suppliers could make up the gap. Many are being hit by the same chaotic forces that have come from the new administration’s economic and immigration policies, including tariffs, supply chain disruptions and the threat of immigration raids on growers.

The upshot of the federal freeze, she said, would be fewer distributions to its regional food banks, smaller allowances and less choice for families visiting them, and the potential closure of some distribution and meal sites.

“So it’s just going to be, you know, a lot of families going hungry,” she said.