As universities, city and state governments and nonprofit organizations across the U.S. grapple with sweeping federal cuts imposed by the Trump administration, Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee is among the latest local entities feeling the impact.
The nonprofit food bank recently discovered it would lose access to an estimated 30 percent of its food provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture — a loss of about 700,000 pounds of food, which will cost about $600,000 to replace in this quarter alone.
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Officials with Second Harvest say the ramifications of these cuts will be even more severe at the start of the 2026 fiscal year, which begins July 1. They expect to see a 4 million-pound food deficit and the end of another federal grant.
The USDA-provided food includes dairy, protein and fresh produce — items that Second Harvest president and CEO Nancy Keil says are critical to families facing food insecurity.
“The stigma of food banks when they first started was absolutely shelf-stable foods,” Keil tells the Scene. “Close to 40 percent of our food is fresh produce. You need both.”
The federal cuts have also led to the cancellation of the Local Food Purchase Assistance program, another major USDA-backed initiative, resulting in the loss of an additional $3 million in funding that would have allowed Second Harvest to purchase fresh food directly from Middle and West Tennessee farmers. Keil says this is a loss not only for the families Second Harvest feeds, but also for local farmers.
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“So not only is this obviously supporting small and midsized farmers, which in turn helps that local economy and it strengthens the food system logistics within that area,” she says. “But it also provides dignity, because these folks see that there is a really amazing, high-quality product that they’re allowed to receive because they are partnered with a farmer in that area.”
Jessie Lumpkins, farm-to-families coordinator at Second Harvest, says they currently work with about 76 farmers. Twelve of those work from Davidson County.
While federal programs provide support to Second Harvest, the nonprofit receives the bulk of its funding from individual donors, corporations and foundations. The food bank serves 46 counties in Middle and West Tennessee and reported more than 41 million meals served in fiscal year 2024.
Keil says food bank data shows more than 93,000 people are facing food insecurity in Davidson County, with 55 percent of them ineligible for SNAP assistance due to being above the poverty threshold. Some 11 million pounds of food were distributed in Davidson County by Second Harvest last fiscal year.
Second Harvest has seen a 46 percent increase in people seeking food assistance since 2020. Representatives say the increase is due to factors including inflation, a reduction in public support and mass layoffs and closures.
“We never like this kind of news, but we do prepare,” Keil says. “We’re working on our budget for next year, and we’re taking all this into consideration, just making sure that we do what we can to deliver excellence to our food-insecure neighbors.”
Keil says the organization is continuing conversations with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture in hopes that another source of funding can be found.
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“We don’t ever give up — we’re food bankers,” says Keil. “We’ve got people who are counting on us to do our job, so we are knocking on doors and making phone calls and just engaging people and informing them of how wonderful and how impactful these programs are and how they really do touch lives, where food does provide hope to people.”
Slashes to federal spending have trickled down to the Nashville area in recent months. Metro is suing the Trump administration to recover $14 million in grants, university researchers are protesting cuts to National Institutes of Health, and threats to the Southern Festival of Books loom.
The U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, run by billionaire Elon Musk, continues to eye other cuts and lay off thousands of federal workers in what they say is an attempt to save wasted taxpayer money.
