Global Food Aid Delayed by USAID Funding Cuts

Food reserves that could feed 3.5 million people for a month are rotting in warehouses following cuts to the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) global aid programs. These reserves have been stuck inside US government warehouses since the Trump administration’s decision in January to cut back on global development assistance programs. 

Four warehouses located in Djibouti, South Africa, Dubai, and Houston contain more than 66,000t of staple goods, including high-energy biscuits, vegetable oil, and fortified grains, all sourced from US farmers and manufacturers, according to five sources consulted by Reuters. The news agency highlighted that the supplies are valued at more than US$98 million. Reserves could feed more than a million people for three months, or the entire population of Gaza for a month and a half, according to data from the World Food Programme, the world’s largest humanitarian organization.

The cancellation of contracts and the freezing of funds needed to pay suppliers, transporters, and contractors have left the food stocks stranded in the four warehouses, sources said. A proposal to hand over the reserves to aid organizations capable of distributing them is currently on hold, as the plan is awaiting approval from the State Department’s Office of Foreign Assistance.

Food aid includes ready-to-use therapeutic foods such as high-energy biscuits and Plumpy’Nut, a peanut-based paste. Navyn Salem, founder of Edesia, a US-based manufacturer of Plumpy’Nut, said that the termination of USAID’s transportation contracts had created a massive backlog, forcing the company to lease an additional warehouse to store its own production.

The resulting stockpile of 5,000t, valued at US$13 million, could feed more than 484,000 children, Salem said. She emphasized that email exchanges with Jeremy Lewin, a former official from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency who now oversees USAID’s dismantling, have left her hopeful that a way will soon be found to deliver her product to the desperate children who need it.

Nearly 500t of high-energy biscuits stored at a USAID warehouse in Dubai are set to expire in July, according to a former USAID official. The biscuits could feed at least 27,000 acutely malnourished children for a month, as reported by Reuters. These supplies are likely to be destroyed, either through incineration, by using them as animal feed, or through other means, said two of the sources. By contrast, in a typical year, only about 20t of food is discarded in such ways due to damage during transport or storage, the source added.

The United States is the world’s largest donor of humanitarian aid, accounting for at least 38% of all contributions recorded by the United Nations. In 2023, it spent US$72 billion on foreign aid, more than US$40 billion of which was administered by USAID. Nonetheless, although it is the largest donor in absolute terms, the country spends a smaller percentage of its national income on aid than any other G7 country, at just 0.24%. For instance, in the same year, the United Kingdom spent 0.58% of its national income on foreign aid.