As winter becomes spring in northern Michigan, we have more light and longer days. As we reset for a new season, we must also stay actively engaged in the events that are shaping this country.

These have been challenging months for the many of us who are concerned about the impacts from federal funding cuts and drastic changes to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Department of Education, and the Environmental Protection Agency, including the broad attacks on DEI initiatives and climate change progress.

Groundwork has been tracking these actions closely and capturing the impacts, both to Groundwork and our partners. We have spent weeks analyzing how the executive orders and subsequent legal actions will affect our federal funding. Like many of you, I am deeply concerned by what I read and see, what it means for residents of Michigan, the climate, our partners, farmers, and children. This is a difficult time for many people and organizations in Michigan, and you can be confident that Groundwork is stepping up to the challenge.

Groundwork has an unprecedented opportunity to tell the stories of people impacted by these actions at the federal level. We work closely with many people across the state, on the ground, and telling their stories is one of our most important roles. We will lean into our reputation as a trusted messenger and a nonpartisan actor. Relying on science, data, and stories, we’ll help our supporters and funders understand what’s happening. We will help Michiganders connect the dots.

Here’s just one example from our work. Since 2018, Groundwork has helped develop and coordinate a local food purchasing program in partnership with the Northwest Food Coalition and Food Rescue in the Grand Traverse Region. From 2022 to 2025, funding from a new USDA program called the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program (LFPA) supported this work. This impactful program paid for purchasing and distributing locally grown food to food insecure families. In January, as part of the sweeping federal funding freeze enacted by the Trump administration, LFPA funds were frozen, which meant our local farmers could not be reimbursed for the food they were growing for food pantries and meal sites in churches, community centers, and soup kitchens.

The USDA has since restored these funds for existing LFPA agreements (meaning local food purchasing will continue this growing season), but the agency also declared that the LFPA program, which in part supports historically disadvantaged and underserved farmers, will be canceled after the current agreements end. A USDA spokesperson said this program, which feeds food insecure people and financially supports family farms, “no longer effectuate[s] the goals of the agency.”

A Groundwork partner involved with the LFPA program captured the impacts this way, “Being able to sell produce to our area’s food pantries and meal sites at a fair price has been hugely impactful for both my farm business and my connection to the community at large. The LFPA funds have allowed me to expand both my farm’s capacity to grow food and my business’s bottom line, which then gets reinvested into the local community. It is heartbreaking to hear that this federal administration has decided to cancel this program.”

In the coming weeks and months, you will hear more stories like this, as Groundwork amplifies our partners’ stories and explains the impacts of new policies and actions that are decimating progress on renewable energy, reducing the distribution of locally grown food, and erasing years of progress on equity. You can trust Groundwork to dig in, hold our ground, and continue fighting for progress.

We’ll work to put more local food in schools and on people’s plates, we’ll push for a faster transition to a clean energy economy, and we’ll advocate and plan for smart transportation solutions that create livable communities. And we’ll stay true to our mission of doing all of our work in a way that centers equity and inclusion. This is work we believe in, work that builds the world we want to see, and we look forward to advocating for that vision with your support. In the coming weeks, you will see more ways to get involved and take action. It’s critical that we stay engaged. By supporting Groundwork now, you are supporting resilience in communities across Michigan. Groundwork is so proud to stand with all of you, our supporters, as we work together to address the challenges of this moment.

Elizabeth Palchak, Groundwork Executive Director
elizabeth.palchak@groundworkcenter.org