{"id":147451,"date":"2026-02-03T20:45:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T01:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=147451"},"modified":"2026-02-03T20:45:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T01:45:20","slug":"budget-maintains-funding-for-key-anti-hunger-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=147451","title":{"rendered":"Budget Maintains Funding for Key Anti-Hunger Programs"},"content":{"rendered":"

HARRISBURG, Pa. (Feb. 3, 2026) — <\/strong>Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s proposed 2026-27 General Fund budget preserves the modest increases allocated to critical anti-hunger programs just a few months ago to continue the fight against food insecurity in the commonwealth.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s spending plan holds the line on funding for the State Food Purchase Program (SFPP) at $30.688 million. The program received a $4 million boost in the late budget that the administration and General Assembly approved in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we are grateful for the stability this budget offers, we cannot lose sight of the fact that this is a critical time of record demand for our most vulnerable neighbors across Pennsylvania,\u201d Hunger-Free Pennsylvania CEO Stuart I.R. Haniff said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to working with the governor and General Assembly to bridge the gap between ‘steady’ and ‘sufficient,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cWe remain committed to our mission of ensuring no Pennsylvanian goes hungry and will continue to advocate for the resources required to meet the unprecedented scale of food insecurity across all 67 counties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunger-Free Pennsylvania and other anti-hunger and social service and nonprofit organizations are working on a multi-year effort to increase funding for SFPP to meet increased need across the commonwealth.<\/p>\n

Embedded within the line item for SFPP is funding for the Pennsylvania Agricultural Surplus System (PASS), which redirects millions of pounds of Pennsylvania-grown agricultural products that might otherwise go to waste to organizations that provide nutritious meals, as well as the Senior Food Box Home Delivery Program.<\/p>\n

Hunger-Free Pennsylvania, in partnership with 18 food banks serving all 67 counties, represents one of the largest charitable food distribution networks in the commonwealth. HFPA, in collaboration with state and federal governments and other nonprofit organizations, works to ensure food security for all Pennsylvanians.<\/p>\n

For more information, visit www.pafoodbanks.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL on behalf of
\nHunger-Free Pennsylvania by:
\nRebecca Patterson<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HARRISBURG, Pa. (Feb. 3, 2026) — Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s proposed 2026-27 General Fund budget preserves the modest increases allocated to critical anti-hunger programs just a few months ago to continue … Continue reading Budget Maintains Funding for Key Anti-Hunger Programs<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147452,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/hunger-free-PA.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147451"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=147451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/147452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=147451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=147451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=147451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}