The Farmers to Families Food Box giveaway program – the Trump administration’s answer to hunger during the pandemic – was undermined by mismanagement and abuse of the $5.5 billion program, said a report released by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis on Wednesday. The panel chairman, Democrat James Clyburn, suggested the USDA should pursue reimbursement, where appropriate, of misspent money.
Written by Democratic staff workers, the report said the USDA allowed contractors to charge high markups on food purchases — 50 percent in some cases — and did not check if its first round of contractors could deliver food competently and safely. Some recipients said they received “rotten food and wet or collapsing boxes” and large packages of meat intended for restaurant use rather than family meals.
“The program was marred by a structure that prioritized industry over families, by contracting practices that prioritized cutting corners over competence and by decisions that prioritized politics over the public good,” said Clyburn. In a letter, he asked USDA inspector general Phyllis Fong to investigate potential fraud or inefficiencies in the food box program. If waste, fraud or abuse is found, “USDA should request that those funds be returned to taxpayers.”
USDA officials testified in 2020 that the program was assembled on the fly, with no mechanism to assure the food was distributed equitably. There were “a lot of problems,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack early this year, when he announced the program would end after one year of operation.
The program relied on contractors to buy surplus food at the local level, package it, and deliver the boxes to food banks and other nonprofits. The cost of the boxes fluctuated from $28 to $105 apiece, the contents varied from place to place and from week to week, and some contractors refused to deliver the boxes to distribution sites.
Sonny Perdue, agriculture secretary in the Trump era, has defended the giveaway program. He said it provided an outlet for unwanted food, kept food distributors in business and delivered food to food banks, schools and nonprofit groups.
The staff report, Farmers to Families?, is available here.