The United States is the world’s biggest donor of international food aid: It funnels billions of dollars annually into emergency vouchers for food in crises, school meals programs, more productive crops, and improving smallholder farmers’ livelihoods in the world’s lowest-income countries.
On Friday, that entire system came crashing down when the State Department issued an unprecedented stop-work order for foreign aid grants and contacts as part of the Trump administration’s 90-day freeze of nearly all foreign assistance. While “emergency food aid” is exempt from the order, it remains unclear what counts under that umbrella.
Meanwhile, the directive has paralyzed a vast swath of U.S.-funded food aid and agricultural research work. It has hit many programs funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, with its nearly $5 billion annual budget for food aid. USAID’s flagship food security initiative, Feed the Future, has ground to a halt. With an annual budget of nearly $1 billion, the initiative works to address root causes of hunger by boosting nutrition and agriculture-led economic growth in 20 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
About the author
Tania Karas@TaniaKaras
Tania Karas is a Senior Editor at Devex, where she edits coverage on global development and humanitarian aid in the Americas. Previously, she managed the digital team for The World, where she oversaw content production for the website, podcast, newsletter, and social media platforms. Tania also spent three years as a foreign correspondent in Greece, Turkey, and Lebanon, covering the Syrian refugee crisis and European politics. She started her career as a staff reporter for the New York Law Journal, covering immigration and access to justice.
