Baldwin highlights impact of cuts to food assistance programs

As it celebrates its landmark 20th anniversary, the Rhinelander Area Food Pantry (RAFP) is preparing for a potential uptick in customers in the wake of the recent implementation of tariffs that economists have said will result in higher prices for American consumers. At the same time, the pantry has had to contend with cuts to key food assistance programs.

According to executive director Courtney Smith, RAFP has seen a 43 percent increase in customers served since last year. 

Smith shared this and many other statistics with U.S Senator Tammy Baldwin while the senator toured the pantry’s Coon Street location on April 16.

Baldwin visited the pantry to hear firsthand how the Trump Administration’s cuts to food assistance programs, including the Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) program and the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), are impacting Wisconsin food banks’ ability to feed families in need. 

“We’re a pantry that belongs to the emergency food assistance program out of the USDA that provides our food pantry with in-kind donated USDA commodities,” Smith explained. “We’re seeing those programs being cut right now which means we have limited access to really important foods like frozen meat and milk.”

Smith said RAFP is taking steps to prepare for more customers but the tariffs may result in limited availability of certain types of food, particularly produce.

“We’ve been stocking up so we’re here for our community,” she said, noting that many of the pantry’s customers are employed but asset limited and income restricted.

For her part, Baldwin noted that the administration’s back-and-forth on trade and tariffs over the last 90-100 days has resulted in deep unease.

“The chaos of starting, stopping, starting, stopping, creates economic impacts of their own,” she said. “Someone was telling me uncertainty and chaos are tariffs on their own.”

“President Trump came into office promising to lower costs for Wisconsinites. Instead, his trade war is landing families and businesses alike with higher costs that make it harder to make ends meet and keep their doors open,” Baldwin said in a press release issued after her tour of RAFP. She also visited Saukville, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Merrill and Wausau “to connect directly with Wisconsin families, communities, and businesses struggling to deal with President Donald Trump’s trade war jacking up costs, Republicans advancing a plan to cut Medicaid, and Elon Musk and DOGE taking away food assistance to pay for their massive tax breaks,” the release said.

Administration officials have framed the tariffs as an attempt to correct longstanding trade imbalances.