Ending the Food Box Program Was the Right Move

By Joseph Glauber

At a recent House hearing, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said that USDA would terminate the Farmers to Family Food Box program. The announcement provoked an outcry from proponents such as the Farm Bureau who had supported the popular program. But despite the program’s popularity among some, USDA made the right decision.

The food box program was created during the early phase of the pandemic when processing bottlenecks caused by lockdowns and COVID-19 outbreaks had upended the food distribution program in the U.S. and put millions out of work. The idea of the Food Box program was to purchase food from farmers who were having trouble marketing their produce, dairy products and other perishable items to needy families affected by the pandemic. As of March 2021, the food box program has delivered almost 150 million boxes of food to approximately 11,000 nonprofit organizations. Between $4.5 and $6 billion has been spent on the program since it went into effect last May.

Trying to achieve multiple goals with the same program often leads to inefficient and costly outcomes and the food box program was no exception. First, the food box program duplicated efforts of a long standing USDA program, the Emergency Food Assistance Program (EFAP). It contracted with new vendors, many of which had no experience in running food distribution programs. Many counties were unserved because of distribution issues, including many rural counties. Moreover, distribution costs were often absorbed by food pantries, food banks and other nonprofits that were already struggling to meet the increased demand for food caused by the pandemic.

Joseph Glauber is a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and former Chief Economist, USDA.