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Federal money that the Community Services Agency had expected to receive for its food pantry program is now indefinitely paused, apparently as a result of the Trump administration’s funding freezes, the local nonprofit organization recently learned.
The Community Services Agency found out last week that money it had been planning to use to buy food for local residents has been frozen, Executive Director Tom Myers said.
“We have no idea if these funds are ever going to be released,” Myers said.
The money in question comes from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program, which provides organizations throughout the country with funds to directly assist people in need, including to provide food, shelter beds and rental or mortgage assistance.
The Community Services Agency receives this money through United Way Bay Area, which is in charge of operating the Emergency Food and Shelter Program locally.
United Way Bay Area has already selected this year’s grant recipients and informally let them know that they have been picked, said Laura Escobar, the group’s vice president of safety net services. Now, the money can’t be distributed due to the funding freeze, she said.
United Way hasn’t announced the specific grant amounts that each organization would get in this year’s funding cycle, but the Community Services Agency had applied to receive $40,000, Escobar said.
According to Myers, any money the Community Services Agency gets would be used to directly support its food pantry program, which serves 3,000 to 4,000 people annually.
The Community Services Agency is the primary nonprofit provider of safety net services for Mountain View, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills. Beyond food, the organization also provides emergency rent and utility assistance, support services for homeless residents and case management for local seniors.
United Way Bay Area recently heard that Emergency Food and Shelter Program’s funding was being paused while FEMA conducts a review to ensure the program complies with executive orders from President Donald Trump and other federal guidance, Escobar said.
What’s unclear, Escobar said, is how the program could be noncompliant, given that it is meant to provide direct aid to people in need.
“What would not be compliant? Buying food? Paying for shelter beds?” Escobar asked. “What could possibly be controversial about feeding people and sheltering people?”
Asked for comment on the funding freeze, a FEMA spokesperson said that the department is “taking swift action to ensure the alignment of its grant programs with President Trump and Secretary (Kristi) Noem’s direction that U.S. taxpayer dollars are being used wisely and for mission critical efforts.”
The spokesperson went on to say that FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security were “instituting additional reviews on all grants to non-governmental organizations as well as funding for non-congregate sheltering activities.”
The spokesperson did not provide specifics about the current status of the Emergency Food and Shelter Program, or when funding is expected to be available again.
How much money Congress allocates to the program varies from year to year, Escobar said. For the current cycle, roughly $117 million was set aside nationwide for the Emergency Food and Shelter Program, including about $2.5 million for the Bay Area, she said.
Announcements from the Trump administration about potential funding freezes have raised concerns locally about the impact that a loss of funding could have on a wide variety of programs.
According to Myers, roughly 10-12% of the Community Services Agency’s budget comes from the federal government, totalling about $800,000 annually. In addition to the funding that comes through United Way, the Community Services Agency also receives federal money through the city of Mountain View and Santa Clara County, Myers said.
He is still waiting to see whether the federal funding freezes will affect the money that comes through the city and county, which include funds to assist local seniors and prevent people from becoming homeless.
Myers stressed that he didn’t want to be alarmist, but that he also wanted to make sure the community understood the reality of the situation.
The Community Services Agency has purposely cultivated diverse funding streams, so that it isn’t overly reliant on any one source, Myers said. In addition to government funding, the nonprofit also receives money from companies, foundations and individual donors.
The freeze on the Emergency Food and Shelter Program funding hasn’t created a drastic situation in the immediate term, Myers said, but also won’t be sustainable.
“If these kinds of cuts in federal funds were … to continue to be sustained over time, CSA would have to seriously consider curtailing programs,” Myers said.
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