DES MOINES, Iowa — Organizations that rely on federal funding are expressing relief after a federal judge temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s order pausing loans and grants on Tuesday.

Late Monday Trump announced that disbursements of federal loans and grants would be halted starting Tuesday while his administration conducted reviews to ensure the spending aligned with his administration’s ideologies and agenda.

The announcement caused panic and confusion for nonprofit organizations across the nation, as many rely on federal funding to provide services.

One such organization is the Central Iowa Shelter and Services in Des Moines. According to CISS CEO Melissa O’Neil, staff spent all day Tuesday trying to figure out what funding would be cut and when it would go into effect.

O’Neil said the funding pause would mean the end to their Mulberry Farm & Food Truck program. The food truck creates meals with produce and fish from the Schoen Greenhouse, which is maintained by CISS staff and job trainees. Every meal purchased from the food truck also helps provide a free meal to food-insecure individuals through the CISS Savor & Share initiative.

“The food truck’s a part of our job training program that puts individuals who’ve graduated from our farm program and who continue to work through entrepreneurial programs in the food truck,” O’Neil said. “The food truck goes to three different farmers markets and it’s fully supported and paid for by the USDA.”

To the organization’s relief, on Tuesday afternoon a federal judge temporarily blocked the funding pause from going into effect until Monday afternoon. O’Neil said this experience has shown that the organization needs to look at creating a reserve fund in case they do lose federal funding in the future.

“That’s a goal of ours strategically to build that operational reserve so that instances like this today don’t cause as much stress as what they did,” O’Neil said.

The shelter’s board of directors is also looking into diversifying the shelter’s funding streams.

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