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Unexpected shortages of food boxes and reduced service from a new U.S. Department of Agriculture contractor have left several Massachusetts food banks and schools scrambling to buy agricultural goods to adequately serve families, according to lawmakers.

Massachusetts lawmakers on Monday wrote to USDA to request a meeting after schools and food banks participating in the Farmers to Families Food Box Program reported that the Northeast region’s new contractor, New York-based Whitsons Culinary Group, could not service all the facilities that received food in prior rounds of the program.

“In our conversations with Whitsons, we learned that regional needs not only vastly outweigh its contracted capacity, but also that, as of December 3, 2020, it has a waitlist of 21 organizations — many of which are previous food box recipients now without a supplier,” wrote the lawmakers, led by U.S. Reps. Jim McGovern and Ayanna Pressley and Sen. Ed Markey. “Food banks have also reported that some of the Whitsons’ food box content has fallen short of meeting nutritional and quality standards.”

Food banks and schools say the USDA gave “almost no warning” of any transition in vendors, and that Whitsons “provided minimal notice to many schools and food banks that its distributions would be greatly reduced or stopped entirely.”

The USDA has agreed to meet with lawmakers this week, McGovern’s office told MassLive. MassLive left a voicemail with Whitsons on Monday evening.

The lawmakers’ pressure on USDA comes as the commonwealth’s food-insecurity rate has jumped by 54% since COVID-19 hit, according to the Greater Boston Food Bank. About one in eight don’t have access to enough food for three healthy meals a day, and one in five children live in food-insecure homes, Arlene Fortunato, senior vice president of advancement for Greater Boston Food Bank, told WCVB on Sunday.

“We’re looking at the possibility of 1 million Massachusetts residents being food insecure during this pandemic,” Fortunato said. “Food insecurity rates are definitely moving in the wrong direction.”

The roughly $4.5 billion Farmers to Families program, authorized by the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, creates partnerships with distributors and organizations to provide hungry families with fresh produce, dairy and meat products. The USDA says it’s provided more than 127 million food boxes nationwide, but Massachusetts lawmakers expressed concerns this summer that families in the Northeast were missing out.

In July, MassLive reported that only about 4.4% of the $1.2 billion in the USDA’s first allotment went to distributors and organizations in the Northeast, where at least 3.6 million people were already experiencing food insecurity before the pandemic.

“American families must always have access to basic necessities, but never more so than during this pandemic,” the lawmakers wrote. “To ensure their needs are being met and that the program is effective, USDA must engage in effective oversight, including seeking feedback from the program’s contractors and recipients.”

According to Blue Book Services, which tracks financial data in the produce industry, USDA passed on Boston-based Costa Fruit & Produce Company, a previous Farmers to Families participant, for the fourth round of the food box program.

The Boston wholesaler previously had a $19.8 million contract in the third round to deliver 426,264 food boxes to nonprofits in Massachusetts, New York and Vermont. Blue Book noted that Costa Fruit & Produce’s round three contract amounted to $46.44 per food box, whereas USDA contracts averaged closer to $40 per box in round four.

According to the USDA’s website, Whitsons’ nearly $43 million contract was the third-highest the USDA signed for the fourth round nationwide. The cost per Whitsons box was $39, with the company agreeing to deliver 1.1 million boxes to organizations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Earlier this fall, New Hampshire lawmakers wrote to USDA after receiving reports that a Delaware contractor replacing Costa Fruit & Produce provided “enormously inferior nutritional quality” in its food boxes, according to Manchester InkLink, an independent news site. Round three food boxes contained scrapple, a pork-based breakfast mush more familiar to people in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey than New England, New Hampshire Food Bank warehouse manager Mark Gambeski told Manchester InkLink.

In a statement emailed to MassLive, a USDA spokesperson noted the fourth round of contracts, from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, is funded by a $500 million boost in appropriations made available in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

“However, the amount of funding available is about one third of the total available in previous rounds, which resulted in some non-profits being unable to participate and some deliveries completing prior to December 31,” the agency said. “Although deliveries under the program are expected to conclude at the end of the year, USDA continues to work with its state and local partners to leverage USDA programs to reduce food insecurity.”

Food banks, USDA said, will continue to receive food through supplemental coronavirus relief appropriations and program purchases that support The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). About $700 million in purchases of domestically produced and processed agricultural products were made this year as part of the USDA’s Section 32 program, nearly $500 million of which will be delivered in fiscal year 2021.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Reps. Richard Neal, Stephen Lynch, Katherine Clark, Bill Keating, Joe Kennedy III, Seth Moulton and Lori Trahan also signed Monday’s letter to USDA.