Tag Archives: USDA

USDA Announces Coronavirus Food Assistance Program

(Washington, D.C., April 17, 2020) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today announced the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP). This new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) program will take several actions to assist farmers, ranchers, and consumers in response to the COVID-19 national emergency. President Trump directed USDA to craft this $19 billion immediate relief program to provide critical support to our farmers and ranchers, maintain the integrity of our food supply chain, and ensure every American continues to receive and have access to the food they need.

“The American food supply chain had to adapt, and it remains safe, secure, and strong, and we all know that starts with America’s farmers and ranchers. This program will not only provide immediate relief for our farmers and ranchers, but it will also allow for the purchase and distribution of our agricultural abundance to help our fellow Americans in need.”

  1. CFAP will use the funding and authorities provided in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES), the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), and other USDA existing authorities. The program includes two major elements to achieve these goals.
  2. CFAP will use the funding and authorities provided in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES), the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), and other USDA existing authorities. The program includes two major elements to achieve these goals.

On top of these targeted programs USDA will utilize other available funding sources to purchase and distribute food to those in need.

  • USDA has up to an additional $873.3 million available in Section 32 funding to purchase a variety of agricultural products for distribution to food banks. The use of these funds will be determined by industry requests, USDA agricultural market analysis, and food bank needs.
  • The FFCRA and CARES Act provided an at least $850 million for food bank administrative costs and USDA food purchases, of which a minimum of $600 million will be designated for food purchases. The use of these funds will be determined by food bank need and product availability.

Further details regarding eligibility, rates, and other implementation will be released at a later date.

Additional Background:

USDA has taken action during the COVID-19 national emergency to make sure children and families are fed during a time of school closures and job losses, as well as increase flexibilities and extensions in USDA’s farm programs to ensure the U.S. food supply chain remains safe and secure.

Feeding Kids and Families

  • USDA expanded flexibilities and waivers in all 50 states and territories to ensure kids and families who need food can get it during this national emergency.
  • USDA is partnering with the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, McLane Global, PepsiCo, and others to deliver more than 1,000,000 meals a week to students in a limited number of rural schools closed due to COVID-19.
  • USDA authorized Pandemic EBT in Michigan and Rhode Island, a supplemental food purchasing benefit to current SNAP participants and as a new EBT benefit to other eligible households to offset the cost of meals that would have otherwise been consumed at school.
  • USDA expanded an innovative SNAP online grocery purchase pilot program in Arizona and California, Florida and Idaho, and DC and North Carolina, in addition to Alabama, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, Oregon and Washington.

Actions to Ensure a Strong Food Supply Chain

Whole of Government Response in Rural America

  • USDA released The COVID-19 Federal Rural Resource Guide (PDF, 349 KB), a first-of-its-kind resource for rural leaders looking for federal funding and partnership opportunities to help address this pandemic.
  • USDA opened a second application window (April 14, 2020 to July 13, 2020) for $72 million of funding under the Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) grant program.
  • USDA Rural Development lenders may offer 180-day loan payment deferrals without prior agency approval for Business and Industry Loan Guarantees, Rural Energy for America Program Loan Guarantees, Community Facilities Loan Guarantees, and Water and Waste Disposal Loan Guarantees.
  • USDA will use the $100 million provided for the ReConnect Program in the CARES Act to invest in qualified 100 percent grant projects.

For all the information on USDA’s work during the COVID-19 pandemic and resources available, please visit www.usda.gov/coronavirus.

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USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.

FSA emergency assistance available for April 2019 extreme flooding events

Farm operators in NY, MA, PA, and VT who were impacted by April 2019 extreme flooding events are eligible for emergency FSA assistance until September 2020.

USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue recently designated 43 New York Counties as natural disaster areas, along with contiguous counties affected in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, for two extreme rainfall events that occurred during the 2019 growing season.

Click here to view the official disaster declaration sent to Governor Cuomo from Secretary Purdue

Farm operators in designated primary counties, and contiguous counties, may be eligible for certain Farm Service Agency (FSA) assistance, including emergency loans, but there is an eight-month window in which farm operators can apply.

Secretary Purdue noted that “FSA considers each emergency loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of production losses on the farm and the security and repayment ability of the operator.”

Local FSA offices

Contact your local FSA office for more information. Click here for locations.

NEWA is awarded USDA grant to improve website

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The NEWA website will soon undergo a significant upgrade funded by a USDA Agricultural Research and Development Program Grant awarded to NYS IPM, which is part of Cornell Cooperative Extension, and the Northeast Regional Climate Center (NRCC) at Cornell University. This $198K grant provides important resources to deploy a website that responds to your device screen size, improves user experience, and adds important data quality measures for the NEWA online decision aid system.

The upcoming web redesign will also integrate capability to provide regional attribution for NEWA partners and weather station owners. It will also link growers to respective partner resources throughout the network for improved IPM decision support. Data quality control of variables such as precipitation, temperature, relative humidity, and solar radiation, coupled with improved communication methods with weather station owners will be built to further improve the reliability of NEWA.

NEWA users in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin will soon have a website experience that provides a new level of continued accuracy and reliability for research-based IPM risk assessments and recommendations.

To download a full press release, visit http://newa.cornell.edu/uploads/documents/2018_USDA_NIFA_NEWA_release.pdf

This work was funded through grant number 2017-70006-27210 from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Crop Protection and Pest Management, Applied Research and Development Program.