Food Aid and Food Security

The PL 480 Title II Food for Peace Program is the longest running and largest U.S. government international assistance program. However the U.S. government has allowed the program to shrink over the years as other priorities vie for the federal budget. Figured in inflation-adjusted dollars, the United States committed more than $8 billion to PL 480 in the 1960s. View a chart outlining the PL 480 budget over the years.

Despite increased needs, estimated at more than $2 billion per year, recent budgets have been only about $1.2 billion. At the same time, while the U.S. government has sought to provide resources for emergencies, it has done so at the expense of addressing the chronic hunger and poverty that makes these crises so serious.

The funding outlook for the near-term future is not better. CRS is deeply concerned that the current budget is only half of what is required. Last year, the U.S. government began restricting the number of countries in which CRS uses food aid. View the list of countries that will still be eligible for Food For Peace food programs.

CRS and Title II Food Aid: Bringing About Real Change

PL 480 food aid is an integral part of CRS development programs in 25 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Currently, more than 3.5 million people receive food aid through these programs:

How CRS Uses Food Aid

CRS uses food aid to address locally identified needs when it can be obtained and distributed in an efficient, timely and effective manner without distorting local markets or production.

CRS distributes food aid directly to beneficiaries and monetizes a small amount of its food aid to generate cash to carry out other food security programs:

In almost all instances, CRS-sponsored food aid programs are carried out through networks of Catholic, faith-based, secular and governmental counterparts and partners overseas. CRS works to ensure that food aid is used to promote and preserve the physical welfare and economic development of the people we serve. Essential to that work are:

Diminishing negative impact on local markets. CRS seeks private and public funds to purchase appropriate food aid from sustainable markets and sources, and to carry out local purchases in such a manner that they promote and improve individual, household and community food security among the producers and the recipients of food aid.

CRS recognizes that selling commodities, also referred to as monetization, is an inefficient method of obtaining funding. CRS sells commodities only when it has determined that there are no alternative methods of funding and that the sale of the commodities will have no negative impacts on local markets and local production. CRS will undertake monetization when it can obtain fair market value cost recovery. CRS will seek to replace monetization with cash funding to cover program costs.

CRS Position on Food Aid Policy

CRS works with our domestic constituency, the Administration and Congress to ensure that the intent of food aid legislation is not the promotion of U.S. commodities overseas but rather the promotion of food security and the alleviation of hunger.

In order to promote long-term food security, food aid must be complemented by policies and programs that promote access to food by poor and vulnerable people, such as investments in agricultural development aimed at small-scale producers, and trade policies that protect small-scale producers against unfair competition. CRS advocates for legislation and agreements that provide a preferential option for the poor to obtain the food they need to flourish and the access to markets that they need to prosper.

CRS endorses the use of food aid for emergency and development needs as well as to provide social safety nets for the poorest people. Unconditional social safety net programs that feed the poorest of the poor — the sick, the dying and the indigent are an expression of the American people's compassion. CRS believes food aid — both imported and locally purchased — can be effectively used to meet relief and developmental objectives and can mitigate and prevent the need for some emergency responses.

CRS Position on Food Aid Funding

The Administration and the U.S. Congress must ensure that $2 billion is budgeted and appropriated each year for PL 480 Title II programs. There needs to be the flexibility to use some of these funds for local food purchase. There needs to be adequate funding for program activities that maximize the impact of the food.

Emergency Food Aid

Development Food Aid