US will pay $100,000 to destroy $794,000 worth of USAID emergency food rations
With 1,100 metric tons of emergency food rations nearing expiry in a U.S. government warehouse in Dubai after Donald Trump's aid freeze, it took a warning of "wasted tax dollars" for a top U.S. official to eventually agree to a deal for the supplies to be used, sources told Reuters.
The deal saved 622 metric tons of the energy-dense biscuits in June, but 496 metric tons, worth $793,000 before they expired this month, will be destroyed, according to two internal U.S. Agency for International Development memos.
The wasted biscuits will be turned into landfill or incinerated in the United Arab Emirates, two sources said. That will cost the U.S. government an additional $100,000.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | July 17, 2025 4:10 AM
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The delays and waste are further examples of how the freeze and then cutbacks, which led to the firing of thousands of USAID employees and contractors, have thrown global humanitarian operations into chaos.
A spokesperson for the State Department, which is now responsible for U.S. foreign aid, confirmed in an email to Reuters that the biscuits would have to be destroyed. But they said the stocks were "purchased as a contingency beyond projections" under the administration of former President Joe Biden, resulting in their expiration.
Trump has said the U.S. pays disproportionately for foreign aid, and he wants other countries to shoulder more of the burden.
His administration announced plans to shut down USAID in January, leaving more than 60,000 metric tons of food aid stuck in stores around the world, Reuters reported in May.
The food aid stuck in Dubai was fortified wheat biscuits, which are calorie-rich and typically deployed in crisis conditions where people lack cooking facilities, "providing immediate nutrition for a child or adult," according to the U.N. World Food Programme.
The WFP says 319 million people are facing acute levels of food insecurity worldwide. Of those, 1.9 million people are gripped by catastrophic hunger and on the brink of famine, primarily in Gaza and Sudan.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | July 17, 2025 12:29 AM
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It's a no brainer, give the food to the hungry. There's just no question about it.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | July 17, 2025 12:32 AM
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[quote] It's a no brainer, give the food to the hungry. There's just no question about it.
That's the whole point of USAID, R2 - feeding the hungry.
And not only did Trump de-fund them, but his administration is letting the food go to waste.
It's inhumane.
Meanwhile, Trump is stuffing his fat face.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | July 17, 2025 12:34 AM
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I wish China would be the world's savior. I'm sick of the US trying it when we still have homeless people on the streets.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | July 17, 2025 12:39 AM
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Promises made, promises kept.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | July 17, 2025 12:55 AM
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Absolutely the WRONG thing to wish for, R5.
We dropped the ball completely in Africa, and the Chinese swooped in to "help" by building infrastructure, only to use that infrastructure to truck/fly out unimaginable amounts of Coltan, diamonds, and rare earth minerals--AND petrochemicals out of the continent and into China.
They are doing today in Africa what Japan did to it in the 1930s-1945.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | July 17, 2025 1:09 AM
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We could easily build enough social housing for everyone and spend a lot on foreign aid, r5. It's not a choice between those two things.
As r7 said, letting China buy friends in the developing world is a bad thing for everyone but the Chinese government.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | July 17, 2025 1:10 AM
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The cruelty is always the point.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | July 17, 2025 1:40 AM
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That's really it, isn't it R9?
*shaking my head*
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | July 17, 2025 4:08 AM
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R5, we're not giving the food to the homeless, either, so what's your point? Destroying this food helps no one
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | July 17, 2025 4:10 AM
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