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Biden to
cancel
Trump's
pandemic
food aid
after
high
costs,
delivery
problems
By
Christopher
Walljasper
reuters.com
CHICAGO
- Yogurt
was
everywhere
as
volunteers
opened
boxes of
fruit,
frozen
meat and
dairy
products
that had
shifted
and
spilled
in
transit
to a
food
bank in
Walworth
County,
Wisconsin.
FILE
PHOTO:
Food
boxes
are
packed
at the
nonprofit
New Life
Centers'
food
pantry
in
Chicago,
Illinois,
U.S.
March
16,
2021.
Picture
taken
March
16,
2021.
REUTERS/Daniel
Acker/File
Photo
They
rushed
to clean
and
transfer
the
packages
of
frozen
meatballs,
apples,
milk and
yogurt
into
cars for
needy
families
to take
home
before
they
spoiled.
The
food
came
from The
Farmers
to
Families
Food Box
program
that the
Trump
administration
launched
to feed
out-of-work
Americans
with
food
rescued
from
farmers
who
would
otherwise
throw it
away as
the
coronavirus
pandemic
upended
food
supply
chains.
The
government
hired
hundreds
of
private
companies
last
spring
to buy
food no
longer
needed
by
restaurants,
schools
and
cruise
ships
and haul
it to
overwhelmed
food
banks.
But the
program
faced
spilled
and
spoiled
food,
high
costs
and
uneven
distribution
nationwide,
according
to
interviews
with
food
banks
and
distributors,
and an
analysis
of U.S.
Department
of
Agriculture
(USDA)
invoice
data
obtained
through
Freedom
of
Information
requests.
Some
of the
companies
charged
the
government
more
than
double
the
program
average
while
delivery
to food
banks
was
sometimes
late.
When the
government
contracted
new
vendors,
some
food
banks
relying
on the
program
stopped
receiving
food at
all. At
the same
time,
the
contractors
delivered
to
churches
or
daycare
centers
that
lacked
adequate
refrigeration.
“Food
was
abandoned
to
spoil,”
said
Susan
Hughes,
managing
director
of the
Walworth
County
Food and
Diaper
Pantry.
The
USDA
spent $4
billion
on the
food box
program
in 2020
– six
times
its
normal
emergency
food
budget.
After
reviewing
the
program,
President
Joe
Biden’s
administration
has
decided
not to
continue
it after
May,
USDA
Communications
Director
Matt
Herrick
told
Reuters.
Under
newly
appointed
Secretary
Tom
Vilsack,
the USDA
is
focused
on
different
hunger
initiatives,
including
expanding
food
stamp
benefits
and
increasing
food
purchases
through
existing
government
food
distribution
programs,
Herrick
said.
“We’re
not
going to
replace
the
program,”
he said.
While
food
bank
operators
are
thankful
for the
large
volumes
of fresh
food
from the
food box
program
- and
they
stress
that aid
is still
needed -
many say
far more
families
could
have
been fed
by
sticking
to
existing
programs
with
proven
quality
and
oversight.
Greg
Ibach,
USDA’s
former
undersecretary
for
marketing
and
regulatory
programs
under
the
Trump
administration,
helped
design
the food
box
program
in about
a month.
He said
it
worked
as well
as other
USDA
programs
that
took
years to
develop.
“We
were in
a hurry.
People
were
hungry;
there
wasn’t
food in
grocery
stores -
if there
was,
they
couldn’t
afford
it,”
Ibach
said.
“We got
a lot of
food out
the door
and in
peoples’
hands.”
HIGH
COSTS,
INCONSISTENT
BOXES
When
the food
box
program
was
rolled
out in
May
2020,
the
Trump
administration
touted
it as a
way of
getting
food to
hungry
Americans
quickly.
But by
late
June,
the
program
fell
short of
delivery
targets,
Reuters
reported.
The
government
provided
little
guidance
to food
pantries
and
sometimes
inexperienced
distributors,
who were
often
left to
connect
with one
another
on their
own.
[L1N2E91DJ]
After
some
states,
including
Montana
and
Nevada,
received
very
little
food
early
on, the
Trump
administration
in June
contracted
with
Gold
Star
Foods, a
California-based
school
food
distributor,
to reach
underserved
areas,
Gold
Star’s
CEO Sean
Leer
said in
an
interview.
Gold
Star
billed
the
government
between
$87 and
$102 in
October
and
November
for food
boxes
containing
fruit,
meat and
dairy
products.
That’s
more
than
double
the
average
of
similar
boxes
from
other
companies
at the
time,
according
to USDA
invoice
data.
Leer
said the
cost
reflected
the
increase
in food
and
freight
prices
during
the
pandemic
supply
chain
disruption.
Leer
said the
company
has at
times
delivered
the food
boxes at
a loss.
He noted
that
during
the
February
cold
snap in
Texas,
Gold
Star
sent
food to
the
state
from
California
because
the
weather
caused
supply
problems
in
Texas.
Food
delivered
by Gold
Star
accounted
for less
than 2%
of
federal
money
spent on
the food
box
program
in 2020,
though
that
will
increase
to just
under 9%
through
April
2021,
according
to
Reuters’
review
of USDA
invoice
data.
Companies
delivered
food in
varying
quantities
at
first,
making
cost
comparisons
between
different
vendors
difficult.
But in
September
USDA
standardized
the food
boxes at
no more
than 24
pounds
after
feedback
from
food
banks.
From
October
through
December,
invoice
data
shows
seven
out of
105
companies,
including
Gold
Star
Foods,
charged
the
government
double
the
program’s
median
price
per
pound of
food.
Three of
those
companies
were
awarded
contracts
by the
Trump
administration
for
nearly
$32
million
in
January
2021.
The
Biden
administration
says
some
companies
may have
overcharged
the
USDA.
“There
was an
unequal
cost
associated
with the
distribution
and
filling
of these
boxes.
Some
people
made a
significant
percentage
from
filling
the
boxes,”
Vilsack
said on
a March
3 call
with
reporters.
The
USDA
specified
food
boxes
delivered
in 2021
to the
continental
U.S.
cost
between
$27 and
$48 per
box. But
cheaper
boxes
presented
new
challenges
and put
additional
burdens
on food
banks,
said
Emily
Broad
Leib,
director
of
Harvard
Law
School’s
Food Law
and
Policy
Clinic.
The
lower-cost
boxes
contained
lower
quality
food,
and food
companies
at times
refused
to
deliver
them to
smaller
pantries,
leaving
local
organizations
scrambling
to find
extra
money
for
delivery,
she
said.
RURAL
AREAS
LEFT OUT
Though
some
regional
food
banks
have
taken on
the
labor of
delivering
to
multiple
counties,
most
smaller
food
banks
serve
only one
county.
Deliveries
to
additional
counties
are at
the
expense
of food
banks,
said
Brian
Greene,
CEO of
the
Houston
Food
Bank.
Reuters’
analysis
of USDA
data
showed
the
program
struggled
in
particular
to reach
rural
counties.
While
cities
and
well-populated
counties
received
millions
of boxes
of food,
896
counties
- or
nearly a
third -
received
none,
according
to USDA
data.
USDA’s
Herrick
said the
Biden
administration’s
assessment
of the
program
exposed
problems
in how
the food
aid was
delivered.
“A
lot of
rural
communities
went
unserved
entirely,”
he said.
Counties
that did
receive
food
worked
with as
many as
a dozen
food
companies
over
seven
months
in 2020.
Every
six to
twelve
weeks,
the USDA
introduced
a new
phase of
the
program,
changing
food
suppliers
and
forcing
food
banks to
scramble
to
connect
with new
vendors
or lose
food
supplies.
“USDA
didn’t
give
(distributors)
any
guidance
as to
who to
serve or
keep
serving,”
said
Harvard’s
Broad
Leib.
“You
can’t
rely on
something
if one
day it’s
there,
then the
next day
it’s
not.”
Despite
the
program’s
flaws,
food
banks
say the
nearly
133
million
boxes of
food
delivered
in 2020
averted
an even
greater
crisis.
There
are
hungry
Americans
in
nearly
every
city and
county
nationwide,
said
Kate
Leone,
senior
VP of
government
relations
at
Feeding
America,
a
national
network
of food
banks.
The
organization
estimates
that
about
half of
the
children
in some
counties
are
food-insecure
-
worried
about
where
their
next
meal
might
come
from.
Reporting
by
Christopher
Walljasper;
Editing
by
Caroline
Stauffer
and
Brian
Thevenot
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