The Counter Profile picture
Sep 3, 2020 12 tweets 3 min read Read on X
#THREAD: The USDA’s Farmers to Families Food Boxes have cost taxpayers a lot more than what they’re worth, according to public records detailing contractor payments reviewed by The Counter. bit.ly/32VNurW
The agency has paid up to $150 for the boxes, many of which have arrived containing inedible produce and unlabeled meat.
On one occasion, a distributor in Puerto Rico left 600 families waiting for food boxes that never came. Another time, a distributor in Texas stopped delivering boxes to a food bank after receiving criticism from it.
In Puerto Rico, the island’s largest food distributor is charging USDA $100 per box for grocery packages that local anti-hunger groups say are worth far less: “For $100 a box, [it] could make three boxes.”
Other food bank operators say they could distribute the same food at a fraction of the cost, even after accounting for labor and transportation costs. bit.ly/32VNurW
In fact, pre-pandemic, USDA already had systems in place to purchase large amounts of food to distribute to food banks. Through these programs, it could easily fill a 25-lb box for less than $15. Instead the agency is paying contractors an average of $23.50 per package. Image
Despite high costs, the food box program hasn’t delivered on many of its promises: Food bank operators say they’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars delivering the boxes—expenses that were supposed to be covered by USDA contractors.
Still, the Trump administration recently committed another $1 billion to the program. Critics of the food boxes believe that they’ve become less about feeding hungry people and more about bolstering support for the president’s re-election campaign.
At a food box event last week, the Secretary of Agriculture called for Trump’s re-election. USDA also recently started including letters signed by the president in boxes. Both incidents are potential violations of the Hatch Act.
The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from using their official authority to influence elections.
Taken together, these flags raise the question of whether food boxes are the most effective way to feed hungry families during a pandemic—or if they’re just another tool used to shore up support among farmers and agribusinesses.
“What’s the point of the box?” one food bank operator asked. “Unless one of these people is related to somebody who makes cardboard… They’re just doing it so they can get the farmer vote.” Read more about the struggling program here: bit.ly/32VNurW

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with The Counter

The Counter Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @TheCounter

Feb 4, 2022
Why are some foods considered worthy of having their stories shared far and wide, while others are not?

In particular, why do we know so little about the much-beloved plantain? 🧵👇

thecounter.org/plantain-banan…
One of the world’s leading banana experts once hypothesized that the plantain may have been the first-ever (!!) fruit crop on Earth.

Yet there are few—online or in print—easily digestible and accessible global histories that tell the plantain’s tale.

drive.google.com/file/d/1_M-Egr…
Parsing plantain’s origins is tricky.

That’s partly because the history of the plantain is inextricably linked to the history of the banana.

Are plantains a type of banana? Are they genetically related but distinct? Is the truth somewhere in between?
Read 13 tweets
Nov 5, 2021
#THREAD Unions once represented broad swaths of the food-service industry. Now it's one of the least unionized sectors.

Lately, though, there’s been a wave of successful labor activism sweeping through coffee shops, both indie and corporate.

Why now?

thecounter.org/coffeeshops-st…
The issues for coffee shop employees are common across food service: low wages, difficult scheduling, challenging work environment.

(All problems, of course, that have been exacerbated by a pandemic.)

But the reasons for their success are in many cases distinct.
Many coffee shops have realized that making visible the vague idea of “doing good” is crucial to making their brand identities resonate with guests, and good for their bottom lines.
Read 14 tweets
Oct 8, 2021
#THREAD: Nothing has shaped the role of restaurant critic quite so dramatically as the pandemic.

Critics can no longer shy away from inequities in the restaurant industry and food media, writes former critic @piescarcega.

Here’s why.

thecounter.org/covid-19-resta…
Dining critics—used to reporting on the aesthetic and culinary value of restaurants—faced nothing less than an existential quandary when Covid hit.

What is the critic’s role, if any, outside recommending—or panning—specific dishes and restaurants?

thecounter.org/food-writing-i…
It's not a new question.

In fact, it's been debated in food circles for the past two decades, ever since we entered into the age of Yelp and instant-access to crowdsourced opinions on food.

But nothing stymied traditional dining criticism quite like the pandemic did.
Read 16 tweets
Sep 24, 2021
#THREAD: Lab-grown meat startups are raising hundreds of millions of dollars to hack animal protein.

But new research comes to a stark conclusion: From biology to economics, the “meat without slaughter” model may be doomed to fail.

Here’s why.

thecounter.org/lab-grown-cult…
First, there’s nothing new about growing animal cells inside bioreactors. Drug companies have done it for years to make vaccines and therapeutics.

It’s expensive, though.

Lab-grown meat can cost as much as $10,000 a pound to produce, according to @goodfoodinst.
Costs will come down. But according to new analysis, cell culture will likely always struggle to feed people affordably.

An exhaustive new report found that the cost to produce cell-based meat will likely never fall below $17 a pound.

engrxiv.org/795su
Read 13 tweets
Sep 10, 2021
#THREAD: Texas’ aggressive new border security initiative relies on the participation of ranchers and farmers. And that’s causing a push and pull between a need for agriculture workers—and a desire to criminalize undocumented immigrants.
thecounter.org/texas-greg-abb…
Operation Lone Star, which allows law enforcement officers to arrest and jail migrants on state criminal charges—like trespassing—is causing a whole lot of confusion for those on the ground in Texas.
texastribune.org/2021/07/30/tex…
In his sweeping efforts to double down on border security, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has deployed about a quarter of the state’s police force. He has also pulled in members of the National Guard, forcing the closure of an El Paso food bank.
elpasomatters.org/2021/08/24/abb…
Read 14 tweets
Aug 21, 2021
#THREAD: The extreme conditions of Antarctica make it an ideal place to test technology that could allow us to grow food in inhospitable settings like Mars. But plant scientists are testing something else there too: how fresh produce impacts well-being. thecounter.org/indoor-vertica…
At a remote research station perched on Antarctica’s Ekstrom Ice Shelf, the "overwinterers," a 10-person skeleton crew that includes a cook, a doctor, and eight engineers and researchers, didn't see the sun—for almost 64 days. awi.de/en/expedition/…
During June and July, average temps fluctuate between 0 and -24 degrees Fahrenheit. Winds over 100 kilometers per hour pound the station. The isolation researchers face isn't unlike what a long-haul space crew goes through.
Read 13 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(