What Does Food Aid Mean?
Food aid refers to the provision of food (or cash to purchase food) from one country to another.
It can be used as an emergency response measure when a disaster or conflict makes access to food difficult, as a way of establishing long-term food programs where chronic food shortages are an issue, and to assist vulnerable people who face food insecurity.
Prior to the 1970s, the US and Canada provided 90% of the world’s food aid. Since then, the United Nations World Food Program began making a major contribution to food aid around the world.
Safeopedia Explains Food Aid
There are three categories of food aid:
- Program Food Aid, in which the donor country sells food to another country through a loan at a reduced interest rate
- Project Food Aid, in which the donor country establishes agricultural or food programs in the recipient country
- Relief Food Aid, in which food is distributed free of charge to the victims of a disaster or in a country at war
Program Food Aid is often used to respond to situations where:
- Local markets are dysfunctional
- Food available in the local market is not sufficient to meet the needs
- Physical access to the market is not available to beneficiaries
Food Aid vs. Food Assistance
Although easily conflated, food aid programs are distinct from food assistance programs. Food aid refers to in-kind food commodities that are shipped from the donor country to a recipient country. Food assistance, on the other hand, is a broader concept that includes food aid as well as market-based activities that help combat hunger and malnutrition.
The US in-kind food aid (Title II) is often used to respond to emergencies where:
- Local markets are dysfunctional
- Food available in the local market is not sufficient to meet the needs
- Physical access to the market is not available to beneficiaries
Impact of USAID Food Assistance Program
Under the United States Agency for International Assistance (USAID) Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA), the Office of Food for Peace handles all food assistance projects of the US government. USAID's food assistance program has had a major impact, including:
- Benefiting more than four billion people since 1954, across 150 countries
- Working to ensure adequate nourishment of children under two years of age
- Overseeing the largest food assistance provider
- Providing over $3.7 billion in emergency and developmental food assistance in 2018
- Maintaining warehouse sites throughout the world in order to mobilize food immediately in the event of an emergency
