The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Agency for International Development will deploy $1 billion in Commodity Credit Corporation funding to purchase U.S.-grown commodities to provide emergency food assistance to people in need throughout the world, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and USAID Administrator Samantha Power announced on Thursday.
“During this time of staggering global hunger, America is extending a hand to hungry communities around the world – and American farmers are crucial to that effort,” said Administrator Power. “USAID is honored to collaborate with USDA to purchase, ship and distribute our surplus food supplies to people in urgent need across the globe.”
An initial tranche of approximately $950 million will support the purchase, shipment and distribution of U.S. wheat, rice, sorghum, lentils, chickpeas, dry peas, vegetable oil, cornmeal, navy beans, pinto beans and kidney beans – commodities that align with traditional USAID international food assistance programming. USAID will determine where the available commodities will be most appropriate for programming without disrupting local markets. USDA will purchase the commodities and transfer them to USAID for distribution.
A separate pilot project, of up to $50 million, will also be set up to utilize U.S. commodities that have not traditionally been part of international food assistance programming, but that are shelf stable and suitable for use in feeding food-insecure populations.
USDA news release
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