Imagine waiting four months for your next meal. Unimaginable, right? Yet, this is the reality some recipients of American food aid face.

The United States is the most generous country when it comes to food aid. The largest food program in the US, “Food for Peace," distributes over $1.5 billion USD in food alone. In total the US spent about $17.9 billion USD on food aid from 2003-2012. That’s a lot of money, and it makes a difference. The problem is that those funds could have fed way more people.

There are various archaic rules that render a large portion of that $17.9 billion useless. Some of the most wasteful rules are those governing the process of shopping.

Aid agencies are required to ship at least 50% of food aid using US flagged vessels. Relying on these vessels is more expensive and time consuming than it would be to use the most convenient ship. It’s estimated that only 51% of the $9.2 billion spent on food aid from 2003-2012 was spent on getting food to those who needed it most. In addition, it takes about 69 days for food aid to be prepared for delivery, and then another 51 days to reach the people in need. So imagine you're hungry today. Now imagine you're told your meal will arrive in 120 days. 

Shipping issues aside, the origin of the food causes further complications. US aid agencies, like USAID, are required to buy 100% of the food they distribute from the US, even when it’s cheaper to get it elsewhere. Buying American made food, and then shipping it from the US to wherever it needs to go wastes a lot of money, as only 70 cents of every dollar actually benefits those who are supposed to get food aid . There is no need to continue requiring aid agencies to buy American made food; the practice doesn’t even make a real difference to US farmers since USAID accounted for 1.4% of US agriculture business between 2002-2011. A meager decline in profits does not justify billions of dollars wasted particularly when that waste leads to more hungry people in the world.

The Obama administration, with the support of USAID, has proposed two major reforms to US’s food aid system:

1) Allow as much as 25 percent of emergency food aid to be spent locally or using alternatives, such as food vouchers and cash transfers;

2) Eliminate monetization, the practice of selling US food so organizations can fund their development work.

While these amendments would streamline the food aid process, this is not the first time such reforms were proposed. In 2007, President Bush called for similar changes, including increased flexibility in the purchasing of food for aid and “$300 million food aid dollars to be given in the form of cash.”

Unfortunately, the Bush administration’s overhaul of food aid fell flat on the House floor; but President Obama has doubled down on his predecessor’s reform proposals.

Global citizens have joined together to call for substantive reforms in the way that the United States approaches food aid. Get involved by signing the food aid reform petition in TAKE ACTION NOW.

Editorial

Defeat Poverty

Wait, how inefficient is US food aid?

By Ryan Nardi