The Trump administration’s $4 billion food-box giveaway program is well-intentioned but “an unnecessarily wasteful program,” said an analyst for the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a think tank that favors smaller government and free markets. It would be more efficient to shift food-box funding to “directly subsidize the nation’s philanthropically supported food banks,” wrote Vince Smith in an essay at Real Clear Politics on Tuesday.
Demand at food banks has soared during the pandemic but Congress has boosted federal funding for them by less than $900 million, said Smith, director of agriculture studies at AEI and an economics professor. The Farmers to Families Food Box program has a muddled mission of trying to prop up prices for fresh produce and keep workers employed in the food distribution system while feeding hungry people, said Smith. “Ironically, the most widely used local delivery points for food boxes turn out to be food banks and their distribution networks.”
Separately ProPublica said the White House did not respond to questions about the inclusion in the food boxes of a letter signed by President Trump and extols the food box program and lists four steps to reduce the risk of infection. Four dozen House Democrats objected to the “self-promoting” letter last month and asked USDA to stop putting it in the boxes.