The Agriculture Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development will spend $1 billion from the Commodity Credit Corporation 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 Thursday.

The money is part of an agreement that Vilsack announced in October after Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and ranking member Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., asked USDA to use the CCC, USDA’s line $30 billion per year line of credit at the Treasury, to increase export promotion and international food aid. 

USAID is the lead federal coordinator on food aid.

Members of Congress have asked why it has taken so long to purchase the food aid and distribute it.

Stabenow praised the announcement, saying, “Violence, armed conflict, rising food prices, and the climate crisis are driving a global crisis of hunger.”

“It is clear that our country must do everything we can to meet humanitarian needs around the world, and American farmers are up to the task. I applaud Secretary Vilsack and the teams at USDA and USAID for working with me to find creative solutions that meet the needs of this critical moment,” Stabenow said.

USDA said in a news release, “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. USAID is working with humanitarian organizations to develop this limited pilot project, and details will be released once they have been developed. This pilot will only apply to this funding stream and no other food assistance programs administered by USAID.

“According to the Global Report on Food Crises and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, an estimated 205 million people need life-saving food assistance worldwide and some 768 million people are facing chronic hunger. These commodities will be used to provide emergency food assistance to people facing dire food insecurity.

“This effort is vital to the Biden-Harris administration’s continued push to address emergency food needs around the world, injecting additional food assistance into the 18 countries listed above and thereby freeing up resources to address emerging crises worldwide when needed.”

USAID has selected 18 countries for the initial round of support:▪ Bangladesh
▪ Burkina Faso
▪ Burundi
▪ Chad
▪ Democratic Republic of the Congo
▪ Djibouti
▪ Ethiopia
▪ Haiti
▪ Kenya
▪ Madagascar
▪ Mali
▪ Nigeria
▪ Rwanda
▪ South Sudan
▪ Sudan
▪ Tanzania
▪ Uganda
▪ Yemen