Workers predict significant disruptions to food assistance programs as USDA announces more relocations

The Food and Nutrition Service oversees 16 nutrition programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images The Agriculture Department is relocating hundreds of additional employees away from its Washington-area and regional offices, this time focusing on food assistance program employees. The Food and Nutrition Service will relocate most of its staff to new hubs USDA has established around the country, including to Indiana, Texas, Missouri and North Carolina. The relocations are part of a larger reorganization of FNS, which will now go by the Food and Nutrition Administration, that a union representing the agency’s workforce said would lead to closures of regional offices in Boston, Chicago, Atlanta and San Francisco. The changes are part of USDA's reorganization that will see 2,600 employees shifted from the capital region into the new regional hubs.FNS oversees 16 nutrition programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Women, Infants and Children, that collectively serve one-in-four Americans annually. The reorganization and relocations will improve customer service and not result in any disruption to program execution, USDA said. “As part of this reorganization, we are changing our structure from regional offices to Hubs that will offer improved program support across the nation,” said USDA