When the fight against hunger becomes a casualty of Trump’s cruelty

America is often told that we are a nation of irreconcilable differences, urban versus rural, red states versus blue, college-educated versus working-class. These divisions are mapped onto our politics, our media, and even our communities, shaping the way we view one another. But the reality is far more complicated, far more human. Beneath the surface of these manufactured divides lies a common truth: we all need food, we all need security, and we all need leaders who recognize that their responsibility is to serve, not to destroy.

This truth should be inescapable, yet it is ignored by those who profit from polarization. The latest example of this came quietly, without fanfare or urgency, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it was canceling two federal programs that provided more than $1 billion annually to help schools and food banks purchase food from local farms and ranches. These programs weren’t just statistics on a budget sheet; they were lifelines. They connected struggling families to fresh food, kept schoolchildren from going hungry, and provided critical income for small and mid-sized farmers who, for all the political rhetoric about “saving rural America,” are so often left behind.

And now, with the stroke of a bureaucratic pen, they are gone.

The impact of this decision is already being felt here in Minnesota. The Trump cuts to USDA’s mean that $18 million in funding for school meals and food banks across the state has been wiped away. This includes more than $9.2 million in Farm-to-School funding, which would have allowed Minnesota schools to purchase fresh, local food for student meals while supporting regional farmers. It also strips away $4 million in food purchasing assistance for childcare institutions, directly affecting some of the youngest and most vulnerable children in the state. On top of that, the decision eliminates $4.7 million from the Local Food Purchasing Assistance (LFPA) program, which would have gone toward stocking food pantry shelves that thousands of Minnesota families rely on. These aren’t just numbers. They are lost meals for children who already depend on schools for their daily nutrition. They are empty shelves at food banks that serve working families trying to make ends meet. They are lost income for local farmers who counted on these programs to keep their operations afloat.

As a former 5th grade US History teacher in a historically underserved community, I have seen the impact of hunger in the classroom. I have seen students come to school unable to focus because they haven’t eaten since yesterday’s lunch. I have seen teachers, myself included, pull snacks from our desks to help a child make it through the day. And I have seen how school food programs, many of them bolstered by the very federal funding that Trump just slashed, can mean the difference between a child thriving or slipping further behind. These cuts will leave thousands of students across Minnesota in that same struggle, sitting in classrooms where hunger overshadows learning.

But this decision isn’t just an attack on students. It’s an attack on farmers, the very people Trump claims to champion. Many Minnesota farmers already face rising costs, shrinking markets, and an uncertain future thanks to his reckless tariffs and trade policies. Now, on top of all of that, they will lose a key buyer for their products, one that not only supported their livelihoods but also ensured that their hard work nourished their communities. Minnesota’s farm economy, already struggling from inflation and supply chain issues, will take another hit as federal purchasing power disappears.

This is where the mythology of Trump’s leadership unravels. He has never fought for working families, for farmers, or for the people he claims as his base. His policies are not designed to uplift or make anything “great”; they are designed to divide. He thrives on destruction, on pitting Americans against one another while his decisions inflict harm across every political, economic, and social line.

For all of the narratives about urban versus rural, blue versus red, this moment should make one thing clear: hunger does not belong to a political party. It does not check voter registration before arriving at your doorstep. A struggling farmer, a hungry child, a family in need, none of them benefit from this decision. And if we don’t push back now, this will only be the beginning.

In Minnesota, a state that embodies so many of these divides, between the Twin Cities and the farmland beyond, it’s time to ask: How many more of these decisions will we allow before we stop pretending Trump’s cruelty is someone else’s problem? How much more will we let be taken before we demand better?

Some will say we are too divided to fight back. Others, exhausted after voting and organizing, may wonder if it’s even worth it. But sitting out won’t shield us. These cuts don’t stop at those Trump and his followers openly target, they spread. The same leaders who gut food programs for children in Minneapolis and Saint Paul will leave working-class families in rural Minnesota struggling too. The same administration cutting off support for farmers will continue making choices that destabilize communities across the board.

Trump’s cruelty may start with us, but it never ends with us. That is the lesson history has tried to teach us, again and again. The question is never whether harm will come, it always does. The only unknown is how much we will allow before we realize that by the time it reaches our own doorstep, it is already too late.

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