Food and farm workers need food, despite federal farm aid

President Trump has given farmers record amounts of pandemic relief, but many farmworkers, food-processing workers, and small family farmers need food assistance, according to dozens of food banks nationwide; meanwhile, hunger is rising in the U.S., particularly in states with a high proportion of rural residents, Christopher Walljasper and Gabriela Bhaskar report for Reuters.

"The Trump administration has paid farmers nearly $18 billion in direct payments since June through its Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, but nearly 92 percent of farmers in Wisconsin received less aid than it costs to run an average dairy in the state for a month," Reuters reports. "More than 54 million people in the United States could struggle to afford food during the pandemic, with the biggest increases in food insecurity in North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin, according to Feeding America, a network of 60,000 U.S. food shelters."

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the CFAP is meant to keep food on Americans' tables, but Reuters says much of the aid isn't reaching farmworkers, since the program doesn't stipulate that.

"The agriculture department has distributed 9.5 million food boxes since June under a program meant to funnel food quickly to those who need it, but food pantry workers say it will not be enough," Walljasper and Bhaskar report. "Weekly survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau and an annual study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture show that hunger is rising, particularly in rural states, after a decade of decline. By late September, Vermont, West Virginia and North Dakota topped the Bureau’s list, with a more than 50% increase in respondents saying they lacked enough to eat."