WFP to resume food aid delivery after halt due to US stop-work order

The World Food Programme will be able to resume in-kind food aid purchases and deliveries that it carries out with USAID funding following the rescission of the pause on its work due to the Trump administration’s freeze on U.S. foreign aid, the agency said Sunday. “This allows for the resumption of food purchases and deliveries under existing USAID agreements,” the agency wrote on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday. “It also enables WFP to continue working with our NGO partners, who play a vital role in distributing emergency food assistance to people affected by war, floods, droughts and other disasters around the world.” WFP had previously been hit with stop-work orders hindering it from transporting and delivering food to some of the most food-insecure people in the world, many of whom are located in conflict zones. That’s despite a waiver issued by the State Department for emergency food assistance. It led to an uproar from several Republican members of Congress from agricultural states where farmers grow and sell commodities to the U.S. government for international aid programs. The U.S. foreign aid funding pause has disrupted more than 507,000 metric tons of food aid valued at more than $340 million, according to an email from WFP to the U.S. Agency for International Development that was seen by Devex on Friday. Though it’s unclear how much of that aid is WFP’s, it’s enough to feed more than 36 million people. For weeks, international organizations have been awaiting clarity on whether they could distribute the food aid amid confusion over whether it would be allowed under the foreign aid freeze. Several experts told Devex that according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the waiver did not apply to commodities for emergency food aid using Food for Peace Title II funds — which refers to the Food for Peace Act — and commodities bought through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Commodity Credit Corporation, or CCC. Several of WFP’s suspended grants fall under Food for Peace Title II, which is jointly administered by USAID and USDA. The United States government spends at least $2.1 billion on U.S.-grown commodities sent abroad annually. But now USAID has notified WFP of the rescission of the stop-work order on its programs, according to an official with knowledge of the matter. That will give way to a restart of the vast apparatus by which U.S.-grown food aid is procured, transported, and distributed around the world. Though the rescission of WFP’s stop-work order applies only to that agency, other implementers of emergency Food for Peace programs have also been granted permission to restart their programs as well, a humanitarian aid worker told Devex. “But as long as the U.S. government’s payment system isn't working for them, any waiver to a stop-work order won't mean much as implementing partners are increasingly cash-strapped,” the humanitarian aid worker said. Furthermore, with USAID gutted and the future of nearly all its staffers’ jobs in question, it’s unclear who would be left to do the work of ensuring food aid shipments arrive where they need to go. And many NGOs that work on food and nutrition programs and rely on USAID funding have already been forced to furlough staff, close offices, or downsize due to the Trump administration's aid freeze. Devex has reached out to USDA, USAID, and the State Department for comment.