The well-intentioned federal Farmers to Family Food Box program, created to help families and farmers during the pandemic, is an unnecessarily wasteful program. It would be much better to shift the three billion dollars in federal funds currently being used for food boxes and directly subsidize the nation’s philanthropically supported food banks. This would enable them to continue to serve people in need through their long-standing and well-established networks of food pantries, soup kitchens, local faith-based organizations, among other groups.
Food banks and food pantries have long helped hungry families whose needs were not met by major federal nutrition policies such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and school breakfast and lunch programs. Prior to COVID-19, food banks were supplying hungry families with one meal for every nine meals supported by SNAP payments.
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