US-grown food aid is stranded in ports worldwide despite waiver

At least 500,000 metric tons of American-grown food commodities meant to feed food-insecure people worldwide are stuck in ports and warehouses due to the Trump administration’s 90-day freeze and stop-work order on U.S. foreign aid, sources familiar with the matter told Devex. That’s despite a waiver for emergency food assistance.

It’s enough to feed more than 36 million people, they say, and valued at nearly $500 million — right now much of it is at risk of spoilage. The stranded commodities include corn and cornmeal, rice, soybeans, lentils, wheat, vegetable oil, and other commodities grown in states including Iowa, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. If not for the stop-work order on U.S. aid, it would go to refugee camps and schools in places like Afghanistan, Sudan, Yemen, and Bangladesh through programs such as Food for Peace, the U.S. government’s flagship program for providing in-kind food aid abroad.

But much of the vast global system for procuring, transporting, and distributing that food aid is halted due to confusion over what falls under the waiver for “life-saving humanitarian assistance” that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio approved last week. The waiver covers “core life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter and subsistence assistance.”