Mariela Buenrostro’s family, which owns and operates Raul and Family Farms in Riverside, has sold produce to food banks and hubs throughout Southern California over the past few years.
The organizations were able to consistently purchase between 700 to 3,000 food items from her family’s farm, according to Buenrostro, because of a federal program called the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
“It’s, honestly, impossible for us to compete with big farms,” Buenrostro said. “So it finally gave us an opportunity to sell at large quantities wholesale, but get prices that would be considered decent to us.”
However, she said her family would have to look for new forms of stable income after the USDA announced earlier this month that it was ending two federal programs aimed at helping schools and food banks purchase produce from local farmers.
Buenrostro said the program changes enacted by President Donald Trump’s administration have added pressure on her family, and farmers throughout the Inland Empire, as they make plans for the upcoming seasons. The move came as Trump has placed tariffs—and subsequently delayed the import taxes—on some of the country’s biggest trading partners, which could impact agricultural supply costs and local food prices.
“Down Victoria [Avenue], there [are] a lot of farms there, and I can guarantee you that at least half of those farmers are being affected by the federal freeze,” Buenrostro said.
The cut initially included funds that were already set to be dispersed to food banks across the nation. A USDA spokesperson told Politico that the agency notified states it would unfreeze existing food bank fund agreements but would end all future funding for the program.
However, according to a blog post by the California Association of Food Banks, even the temporary pause caused catastrophic damage statewide to organizations that relied on the money.
“The two-week hiatus resulted in nearly one million dollars lost in sales for farmers, while program operators faced potential layoffs,” the organization wrote.
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Scott Berndt, a coordinator who’s worked with several Riverside-based agricultural organizations, said food bank funds are expected to continue until mid-2026. The following disbursement, which would provide funding until 2028, was axed.
“Some farmers were making long-term plans, like possibly renting some more land and growing more and buying more equipment,” Berndt said. “But I think they put that on hold now.”
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), in a March 14 release, said the cancellation of the programs for schools and food banks would put more than $118 million in food purchases at risk throughout the rest of this year.
A California Department of Education spokesperson in an email told The Riverside Record that the USDA had sent notification on March 7 that it would be terminating an agreement for an upcoming Local Food for Schools and Child Care grant. They added that the funds had not yet been received by the state’s education department nor had any local programs received the money.
In the Coachella Valley, farmers have also increasingly become concerned with the impact of potential tariffs, according to Riverside County Farm Bureau President Ellen Way, who said that any tax on imported goods could impact crops in vastly different ways.
“We need some of those farming amendments,” Way said. “Some fertilizers and different things that come from foreign lands that we need to bring into this country because we don’t have it here.”
Berndt said that some smaller farmers in the region hoped the implementation of tariffs on Mexican goods would make it easier to compete against their much cheaper produce, allowing them to plant produce like green beans and tomatillos — crops that have been ignored for years — and sell them at fairer prices.
But Berndt said he’s advised growers to ignore Trump’s tariff talks as they prepare their future harvests.
“It’s very hard for local farmers to meet the import price,” Buenrostro said. “I thought the tariffs would have brought more consumers to look for their local farmers, but we haven’t seen much change.”
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