I have a potential father-in-law who runs a medium-scale charity organization. He (a surgeon) takes a team of mostly doctors to third-world countries and dispenses medicine, medical training, and humanitarian supplies like clothing and food. All of his supplies are either donated or bought with money he and his organization have raised. But he always has trouble getting enough food.
I’ve been thinking: the US government has a controversial policy of subsidizing agriculture. Granted–much of the government aid is in the form of low-interest loans. But there is still a substantial amount of aid in the form of guaranteed prices. I.e. if a farmer can’t find a buyer for his crop at a certain price, the government is required to swoop in and buy it from him at said price. I’ve heard tales (no cite) of huge government-owned grain silos full to the brim with food that will never be eaten.
So is there any way that private charities can get their hands on this food? Even mostly-unprocessed food would work. I’ve looked through the USDA’s and the FSA’s websites to no avail. Any doper tips?
PS: I’ve been reading Cecil for years and following this board for months. This is my first post though. Please be gentle with me.
Well, some of it is distributed by the government to the poor in the US. For instance, if you’ve ever heard of “Government cheese”, that’s one example of a foodstuff made from the subsidized farm production. I don’t know what the situation is for grains, though.
WIC is a good program but SO badly administered. I have known at least 10 women on WIC and they get SO MUCH food they can’t eat it. So I took a bunch of it. The program has merit but the administration is so bad. To dump so much food on a person who’ll never eat it is just wrongly believing you’re doing good when you aren’t
As for government giving farmer’s aid, I see why they do it, it is in the national interest to make sure that we have food. I mean if a country imports alot of it’s food then a war breaks out it is at the mercy of those it’s importing food. We need to be able to grow and harvest food at a moment’s notice for our own security.
Some of that has to do with the way the food is packaged & stored.
For example, a divorced mother with kids who rented our arena to give riding lessons got some of this food. The government cheese was actually pretty good, but it came in 10-pound blocks! Every month! That’s a lot of cheese for a mother & 3 small kids to eat, and it gets pretty boring. She ended up trading some of the cheese to my mother for home-canned vegetables and some meat when we butchered. Then my mom made macaroni-and-cheese & potatoes au gratin for us kids and the farm help, and we ate it up.
A lot of this ended up in bulk kitchens, like school hot-lunch programs, etc., so a big size like a 10-pound block was efficient. But it was excessive for a normal mother and kids. And the ‘regulations’ prohibited the local distribution points from splitting this up into smaller packages (possibly health code requirements). But the end result could be a family with a refrigerator full of blocks of cheese, but no vegetables, fruit, or meat. Not a healthy diet.
If the father’s household meets the requirements, and has a child under five, the child will qualify for WIC. It’s called Women Infants and Children because some pregnant women and some new mothers are eligible for their own assistance even if the household doesn’t have a child in it (yet). If a mom has a two year old and a six year old, only the two year old will receive WIC. The woman and older child won’t be eligible.
I feel like a complete moron saying this, but I never thought of that. Seriously. Whenever I write to my congressman, it’s always to express a viewpoint or argument. I’ve never thought to ask for something.
I know of a case in Chicago like that - man was left with five children to raise, including an infant. HE did not qualify for WIC, but some of the children did, and of course as his guardian got the food on their behalf.
His best bet is to connect with an NGO distributing food aid in the country he will be working in. He can find out which NGOs are active by going to www.usaid.gov and selecting country locator (the map on the right).
There, he should find a list of what NGOs are working in the country and what they are doing. Based on the description, he can then make contact with their office in the host country, or with their office in the US (often in Washington, DC). For the most part, NGOs are happy to meet with colleagues and share info and ideas. If they can’t provide you with donated food directly, they should be able to point you in the right direction. Good luck.
The critter in question would be the delegation from California. I’m not from California myself, so I don’t really know the politics. (Not that non-residence is any excuse shame.)
That’s another awesome idea. Thanks for the resource! Unfortunately, I’m not sure it will work in this specific case, because they do lots of missions, and it’s a different country each time. What they could really use is a steady supply of donatable food. But it might be worth a shot, no?