WATSONVILLE >> Second Harvest Food Bank Santa Cruz County has joined a growing chorus of food banks across the country reporting an abrupt halt in food deliveries previously promised by federal partners.

Erica Padilla-Chavez, CEO of Second Harvest, told a group of reporters at a news conference Monday that about 177,000 pounds of food — the equivalent of 1 million meals — is missing from the shelves at the prominent local nonprofit’s warehouse in Watsonville due to a “pause” in funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Commodity Credit Corporation program.

Altogether, the deliveries are worth about $348,728 funded through the federal agency’s Emergency Food Assistance Program, according to Second Harvest.

Padilla-Chavez told the Sentinel that she learned the deliveries were tied up about three weeks ago when her team went to check its portal within the assistance program’s website and saw the shipments had been marked as “returned.”

After checking in with fellow food banks and partners at regional and national levels, Second Harvest discovered that $500 million allocated for deliveries across the country within the Department of Agriculture’s budget had been halted. What’s more, Padilla-Chavez said it isn’t clear if the shipments will resume or are gone for good, as she has read conflicting reports that use the word “pause” while others say they have been “cancelled.”

“I want to hope that it’s paused and that somehow it’ll restart. But still, that means our food bank is not getting the food,” said Padilla-Chavez. “Maybe it’s a pause, maybe it’s a cancellation, but what’s important for the community to understand is that the food is not making its way to the food bank.”Padilla-Chavez also confirmed that when the new fiscal year begins July 1, another $360,000 from the Department of Agriculture’s Local Food Purchase Assistance program will be missing from the food bank’s budget, translating to an additional deficit of 1.1 million local meals.

Perhaps most concerning of all is the $230 billion in proposed reductions to the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known in California as CalFresh, that is included within a budget proposal currently working its way through Congress. Padilla-Chavez said CalFresh is the only program that feeds more people in the county than the food bank and includes 41,000 local beneficiaries, about 33%, or 13,500, of whom are younger than 17 years old.

“We’re talking about children,” said Padilla-Chavez. “Your food bank is not going to be in a position to absorb drastic cuts to the SNAP program without all of us feeling it.”

And while Padilla-Chavez stressed that Second Harvest still has enough supplies to meet the local demand, planning for something as essential as food for community members in need requires a great deal of advance planning and her team isn’t waiting around to see how things at the federal level play out.

Monday also served as a hard launch for Second Harvest’s new initiative, Operation Bridge the Gap. The campaign, necessitated by the troubling federal financial outlook, was stood up to urge individuals, businesses and community partners to support the food bank and its operations by donating, volunteering and advocating through messages to elected officials.

“Second Harvest Food Bank is going to be affected because there are going to be more people … especially children, that are going to need food,” said Wanda Spencer, a Second Harvest beneficiary, volunteer and advisory committee member. “I’m just hoping that people can help each other get together and … get in contact with somebody at Second Harvest so they can teach you things you can do to help yourself and the community.”

In a social media post shared Monday in response to a story about food bank delivery delays, Rep. Jimmy Panetta said he is continuing to push forward with the Farmers Feeding America Act he co-authored in 2023. Panetta wrote that the bill is meant to bolster Department of Agriculture support for food banks and strengthens connections between local producers and those in need.

“The Trump administration’s recent suspension of over $1 billion in federal food aid is an affront to families in CA-19 and nationwide,” Panetta wrote. “These cuts jeopardize essential programs that support our schools, food banks, and local farmers.”

Second Harvest partners with more than 100 local agencies and programs to feed an average of 65,000 county residents each month. It was founded in 1972, making it the first food bank in the state and second in the nation.

“We’ve always counted on our community to help us,” said Second Harvest Chief Development Officer Michele Bassi. “Now more than ever, we really need your support.”

Information about Operation Bridge the Gap is online at thefoodbank.org.