USDA employees in food assistance programs folded into relocation plans

The Agriculture Department is planning to move most employees working in food assistance programs to hubs across the country, in the latest step of a departmentwide reorganization.

USDA announced Thursday that most Food and Nutrition Service employees will relocate to other parts of the country.

The agency is currently headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, and has seven regional offices across the United States. Most impacted FNS employees will move to regional hubs that USDA designated last year, when it announced plans to relocate more than half of its D.C.-based headquarters workforce.

The department is also rebranding the Food and Nutrition Service as the Food and Nutrition Administration.

The Food and Nutrition Service currently has a workforce of about 1,200 employees, according to the latest data from OPM. It’s not immediately clear how many FNS employees will be asked to relocate. A USDA spokesperson said all 16 federal nutrition programs “will continue without disruption.”

USDA saw a high rate of attrition when it asked fewer employees to move under the first Trump administration.

In 2019, hundreds of employees at the Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) relocated hundreds of D.C.-based employees to Kansas City. But more than half of the employees who received relocation notices quit rather than relocate. USDA recently announced that it would relocate more ERS and NIFA employees to Kansas City.

Millions of people in the U.S. rely on benefits provided by the FNS. About 42 million individuals receive food assistance from the agency’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

USDA leaders expect fewer employees will refuse to move this time around because mass layoffs across the federal workforce have made the job search more challenging in the D.C. area. D.C. currently has the highest unemployment rate in the country, and federal employees who were laid off last year are still struggling to find new jobs.

USDA let over 15,000 employees leave in 2025, after they accepted deferred resignation and early retirement offers.

SNAP employees will be relocated to Indianapolis, Indiana. Employees who work in child nutrition programs will be relocated to Dallas, Texas.

Supplemental Nutrition and Safety Programs staff will be relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, and research programs employees will move to Raleigh, North Carolina.

USDA said a fifth hub in Denver, Colorado, will serve as an emergency management and continuity of operations location.

FNS employees who work in retailer operations and compliance will be moved to offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Dallas and New York City.

USDA said the Food and Nutrition Service’s administrator will remain in Washington, D.C., “along with a small footprint,” to address Congress, interagency coordination, regulatory work and policy matters.

USDA is embarking on a multi-part reorganization that would move many of its component agencies and their employees across the country.

In previous relocation announcements, USDA said it was moving employees closer to the farmers, ranchers and other individuals it serves, and would move employees to regions with a lower cost of living than the D.C. area.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the reorganization is about “prioritizing customer service and infusing each nutrition program with new energy and vision.”

USDA’s Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden said the reorganization “is long overdue,” and “will better align with other benefit programs administered across the federal government.”

FNS hasn’t had a Senate-confirmed under secretary in nearly two decades. Deputy Under Secretary of Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services Patrick Penn is serving as the agency’s acting administrator.

The department is also embarking on a multi-part reorganization of the Forest Service that would move its headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah, shutter its regional offices, and close up to three-quarters of its research facilities.

USDA announced last year that more than 2,000 USDA employees in the D.C. area will also be relocated to these hubs across the country. In February, the USDA announced plans to sell one of its D.C. headquarters buildings.

The department hasn’t provided many details on the total cost of this reorganization. But its budget request for fiscal 2027 states that it will cost more than $25 million to dispose of the USDA South Building and consolidate employees staying in the D.C. area to the nearby Jamie L. Whitten and Sidney R. Yates Federal Buildings.

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