USDA coronavirus program distributes food to needy while supporting American agriculture

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced April 17 it has started the Farmers to Families Food Box Program as part of a coronavirus food assistance program in an effort to provide nutrition to the needy and support American agriculture.

The Agricultural Marketing Service’s Commodity Procurement Program normally makes purchases that support American agriculture by encouraging consumption of domestically produced foods. According to USDA, the food is delivered to schools, food banks, Indian tribe organizations and households in communities across the country. And they are a vital component of our nation’s food safety net. However, with the current coronavirus pandemic, the Farmers to Families Food Box Program was designed to cut red tape, put nutritious American food in the hands of those most effected by COVID-19 and prevent farmers from having to destroy perfectly good products because of storage limitations.

According to the USDA, the AMS Commodity Procurement Program will provide an estimated $100 million per month in fresh fruits and vegetables, $100 million per month in a variety of dairy products, and $100 million per month in meat products. The distributors and wholesalers will then provide a pre-approved box of fresh produce, dairy, and meat products to food banks, community and faith-based organizations and other non-profits serving Americans in need.

Chris Purdy, associate deputy director of the USDA Commodity Procurement Program, said the program regularly awards federal contracts for a variety of agricultural products, including fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, fish and grains. Internationally, products are purchased for Food for Peace, Food for Progress and Food for Education.

“Last year we purchased close to $4.2 billion worth of product that was sent domestically and internationally to those in need,” Purdy said.

Normally suppliers must be preapproved to participate in the program and meet a number of criteria, but with the Farmer to Families program, the process has been streamlined to better meet our needs as a country.

“The development of the Farmers to Families Food Box Program represents a completely different way of doing business, but these times call for activities out of our comfort zones,” Purdy said. “We are living and breathing a tough situation right now. Farmers are dumping fresh produce and milk, euthanizing animals in some cases, food service distributors are not operating at full capacity and food banks and non-profit organizations are seeing a 50 to 70%, or more, increase in participation in their feeding programs.”

He said at the same time, donations have been reduced and fewer volunteers are coming to help the food banks distribute food.

“So we asked ourselves, could we design a program to solve these challenges,” Purdy explained. “It had to be substantially different than our normal purchase program. We needed to expand beyond our preapproved vendor base. We are looking for product we don’t normally purchase. We needed to purchase what was currently available and we could not purchase full truckload quantities, because storage and distribution is limited.”

As far as the reduced volunteer numbers in food banks, Purdy said it was important to provide food in a way that lessened the workload for non-profits.

David Tuckwiller, deputy administrator of the USDA Commodity Procurement Program, said the Farmers to Families Food Box Program is looking for fresh product, no canned, frozen or nut products will be accepted.

“We are looking to provide assistance to the fresh produce industry and move it through this program,” he said. “On the dairy products, we are looking for actual dairy such as milk, cheese and yogurt. We will not approve macaroni and cheese or other products that might contain dairy. We are really looking to support the dairy industry as part of our purpose.”

Tuckwiller said both chicken and pork products need to be precooked.

“We realize there are plenty of destinations that can handle raw products, however from a food safety standpoint, we felt more comfortable in requiring precooked items for this program,” Tuckwiller said.

In an effort to underline their mission to support American agriculture, Tuckwiller said applicants of the program must include how they plan to engage small farmers, such as farmers market vendors. Additionally, applicants must describe their plan for effectively distributing commodities they provide to non-profit organizations.

“Our plan is to reward contracts for immediate delivery through June 30 [BS1] and our hope is to have option periods that allow extension of the deliveries through the summer,” Tuckwiller said.

Purdy emphasized that the USDA is looking into new commercial channels, utilizing current or new relationships between farmers, distributors or really any entity that can assemble a box and move it to a non-profit organization. Tuckwiller said the program is looking for a wide variety of people and businesses to join this endeavor.

 “If you have the capability to assemble boxes of multiple fresh produce, dairy, chicken or pork products that a non-profit is willing to accept, we encourage you to submit an offer,” Tuckwiller said.

To learn more about the program, visit www.ams.usda.gov/selling-food-to-usda/farmers-to-families-food-box.

Lacey Newlin can be reached at 580-748-1892 or [email protected].