Federal food program not meeting needs, state says
WASHINGTON — A new federal program to connect hungry families with boxes of fresh food from farmers has launched in Connecticut, but the needs of the hungry far outstrip the supply of food boxes.
The Farmers to Families Food Box program, heralded by the Trump administration, appears illequipped to address skyrocketing hunger in the Northeast because the U. S. Department of Agriculture awarded just 4 percent of the funds to companies in the region so far.
“Clearly the Northeast has a tremendous need,” said Bryan Hurlburt, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Agriculture and the state’s “food czar,” who helped farmers apply for the program. “I’m not sure what the process was.”
Across the country, the USDA has contracted 198 companies to create $ 1.2 billion worth of boxes of fresh produce, dairy products and meat. This the first round of what will be a $ 3 billion program aimed at addressing food insecurity caused by the coronavirus.
However, only 29 companies won contracts to distribute in the Northeast region, including two from Connecticut. Their contracts totaled $ 54 million — about 4 percent of the total food boxes funds.
Several other Connecticut farmers applied for the program and were not approved and several others wanted to apply, but could not do so in the one week period the USDA allowed, Hurlburt said.
At least two to three food wholesalers in Connecticut also applied but were not accepted, said Jason Jakubowski, CEO of Foodshare, a food bank in Bloomfield. He knows because those wholesalers wanted to give Foodshare boxes.
Some local food banks said it is especially hard to secure the food boxes in the Northeast.
"Honestly, the Northeast was really short- changed," said Joanne Dwyer, director of Food Industry Relations at the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York. “Everyone is trying to reach out to the same small pool of distributors that only have so many boxes they are able to provide.”
The Connecticut Food Bank will receive food boxes from six vendors in the program, said spokesman Paul Shipman. He had no information about the procurement process.
“It seems none of them are local to the Northeast,” Shipman said. “We have gotten some product in and I am told it has already been already making its way to our network of programs. In that regard, it is working for us.”
Food banks without existing relationships with the approved vendors have struggled to secure shipments. Foodshare already worked with Mid- Atlantic Regional Cooperative and will receive over 3,000 boxes from them.
“A lot of fellow food bankers had a really hard time with this,” Jakubowski said. “What I’ve heard from other food bankers across the country is if they happen to have a local vendor in their area that got a contract, they’re happy. But there are definitely areas that are sparse.”
The USDA did not respond to emailed questions about food box distribution in the Northeast.
Two Connecticut businesses received small contracts through the program. Willimantic Food Co- Op won a $ 1,400 contract to distribute 40 boxes of fruits and vegetables to a local soup kitchen before June 30.
Cecarellis Harrison Hill Farm LLC won a $ 60,000 contract to distribute at least 2,000 boxes of fresh produce grown on the farm. Those boxes will head to the Center for Food Equity and Economic Development of the Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport, the East Haven Public Schools and Common Ground High School in New Haven for distribution to hungry families, said William Dellacamera, owner of Cecarellis Harrison Hill Farm, a more than 45 acre farm in North Branford.
Coronavirus closed the farmer’s markets, festivals and fairs, where Dellacamera usually sells his crops. The virus cuts his sales to restaurants and other wholesalers. The farmer also must redesign his pickyour- own strawberry plans.
“My whole fear was where I am going to go with this stuff?” Dellacamera said. “[ The food box program] does something for a farmer that never before had security.”
The Food Box program is intended to address the problems of growing hunger and disrupted supply chains for farmers and food suppliers. It is one of several forms of relief to farms and avenues for food banks and low- income individuals to sercure food.
East Haven Public Schools will be distributing the food boxes starting in mid- June along with the 700 bagged breakfasts and lunches it hands out every day at three schools in the town, said Linda Stanisci, food service director for East Haven Public Schools.
Common Ground, a high school and urban farm, will distribute its boxes to about 70 of its needy families and senior residences in New Haven, said Deborah Greig, farm director at Common Ground.
“We are also not used to do emergency food at all,” Greig said, although Common Ground normally runs amobile market. “We are sort of learning as we go... I think what is happening now is revealing how unstable our local food supplies are.”
The Farmers to Families Food Box Program was launched by the president's daughter Ivanka Trump and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on May 15, who noted that many of the contractors were small suppliers.
The USDA quickly approved bids for the $ 3 billion program, so fast that some companies had an approved contract in hand one week after they applied, distributors said. The contracts were approved in early May, a difficult time for farmers in the Northeast to assess their crops.
“Should USDA reopen it, you would have a lot more Connecticut farmers interested and that would be a great way to stimulate the local economy and get local food to families in need, reduce the transportation costs and logistics around it,” Hurlburt said.
But lawmakers have raised questions about some of the large contracts that were awarded, particularly how a wedding and corporate event planner CR8AD8 in San Antonio was approved for a $ 39 million contract. CR8AD8 may have falsified some of its credentials in order to receive the bid, the San Antonio Express- News reported.
Other contracts were awarded to companies without clear food distribution experience including a wellness kiosk company and a trade finance corporation, while bypassing some of the nation's largest food distributors, the Washington Post reported.
"USDA awarding 198 contracts in a week involved a process that failed to protect taxpayers, the hungry and producers with food going to waste," wrote Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D- Tx. in a letter for Perdue, this week.
The USDA has already terminated a $ 40 million contract with California Avocados Direct to deliver fresh fruit and vegetables to food banks.
As the USDA shakes out the kinks with the food box program, food pantries across Connecticut are seeing demand increase 40 to 50 percent, Connecticut Food Bank and Foodshare said. Across the state, people are turning to food pantries who have never needed to before.
“It’s a drop in the bucket but it is better than nothing,” said Michelle McCabe, director of the Center for Food Equity and Economic Development of the Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport.