Coronavirus Food Assistance Program

The CFAP package consists of two parts: $16 million in direct payments to commodity growers, specialty crop farmers, and livestock and dairy producers issued through USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA), and $3 billion in direct purchases of meat, dairy, and specialty crops.

The Buy Fresh program (also known as the Food Box Program) is part of the second component that Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will administer. Funding for the two components comes through the CARES Act put in place to help businesses impacted by COVID-19 shutdowns, which have hit the produce industry hard.

Here's what you need to know:

Buy Fresh or Food Box Program

Request for Proposal (RFP) applications for the Buy Fresh or Food Box component of CFAP will be available April 24 for those wanting to supply commodity boxes to non-profit organizations such as food banks, church groups, and schools. The deadline for these proposals is May 5. The USDA plans to announce awards May 8, and food deliveries will start May 15.

"USDA is working as quickly as possible to implement CFAP" said a USDA spokesperson. "The purchase and distribution of produce, dairy, and meat products will begin in approximately two weeks. Sign up for the direct support is expected to begin by the end of May. More information will be provided when the rule is published."

USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service's (AMS) Commodity Procurement Program will secure an estimated $100 million per month for fresh fruits and vegetables for the next six months. The USDA will reassess the monetary amount per month and the length for providing this aid as the program proceeds.

USDA will award contracts for the purchase of the agricultural products, the assembly of commodity boxes, and delivery to identified non-profit organizations that can receive, store, and distribute food items.

"AMS will soon be partnering with local and regional distributors of food," said a USDA spokesperson when we asked about how the program would work. "Once these partners have been identified, AMS will work with food banks as well as community and faith-based organizations to initially identify themselves to the distributor for direct coordination of deliveries. Food banks and community and faith-based organizations can distribute these boxes to any individuals."

Emergency feeding organizations and others have struggled with volunteer shortages due to social distancing, unprecedented demand, and food shortages since COVID-19 first took hold on the U.S. The produce industry's packing and distribution supply chain will now be able to help handle the heavy load of getting the produce from farm to emergency feeding sites. Foodservice distributors will package a pre-approved mix of fruits and vegetables and deliver it directly to the emergency feeding sites in their local area.

Guidelines for the fresh produce boxes are as follows:

• Products and processing must be of domestic origin
• Consumer-friendly packaging (but not necessarily retail packs) is specified
• Awardees must identify and manage relationships with non-profits, with a delivery schedule and box-type terms
• Contracts will be issued in seven regions and proposals can be submitted for multiple or partial regions.
  
  

Only sellers of fresh produce (no processed commodities) will qualify for the program, and produce must be grown in the U.S. The USDA has said that certain commodities such as berries, 5-lb mixed fruit bags, carrots, onions, cucumbers, lettuce, and tomatoes, to name a few, will be given priority. The USDA based the prioritized commodities on what the food banks want and need and by which growers have been hit the hardest due to the impacts of the pandemic.

With the rapid developments to get this program up and running, there are still details to be worked out and many questions about how to address possible obstacles to participation, particularly for smaller operations that don't have the connections to the food banks and other emergency feeding organizations, which is why it will be important for the produce industry, the USDA, and trade associations to work together and encourage local partnerships.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition also has an excellent blog post on its website that explains the CFAP relief package, and if you're looking for technical assistance with filling out the RFP for the Buy Fresh/Food Box program, don't miss the webinar that The Wallace Center is hosting on Monday, April 27 at 4 p.m. EST to go over details of the RFP. You still have time to register for the event. Additionally,  Farm Commons plans to release a series of informational webinars on who is eligible, how to receive compensation, as well as supplemental materials to assist with documentation of actual losses.

Could Buy Fresh Be a Gateway to Future Partnerships With the USDA?

USDA is broaching new territory with the Buy Fresh program, which tugs it out of its shelf-stable-food comfort zone. The United Fresh Produce Association applauded the new program and asked for the produce industry to lean in and support the effort.

The Buy Fresh program could also be a harbinger of good things to come for the produce industry in the future. If successfully carried out, the program might help prove to the USDA that fresh fruits and vegetables deserve a more prominent place in federal feeding programs.

"There is potential there," said Robert Guenther, Senior Vice President, Public Policy for United Fresh Produce Association. "The USDA will partner with vendors it hasn't worked with before. That could open opportunities for the industry, and there is no reason why a program that is successful and efficient couldn't continue in the future to help supply federal nutrition programs."

The United Fresh Produce Association plans to work closely with legislators and the USDA to ensure that this program not only runs smoothly, because careful thought was put into the details and execution, but also that it benefits those who really need the help, Guenther said. The worst thing, he says, would be for the USDA not to continue funding for Buy Fresh or consider a program similar to it in the future as part of federal feeding programs because the funds were used unwisely or didn't benefit those they were meant to help in the first place.

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has already come under this type of scrutiny, with recent reports in the news that major restaurant chains, hotels, and other big businesses received funds from this program meant to help small businesses with fewer than 500 employees. President Trump announced on April 21 in a press briefing that he was going to ask large businesses and institutions to return the money they received, and Treasure Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters in the same briefing that the Treasury Department would be issuing guidance on the certification that businesses need to meet to qualify for the PPP loans.

What Does all This Mean for the Produce Industry?
The direct payment component of the CFAP program applies to specialty crop producers who can prove actual losses where prices and supply chains have been affected. However, not everyone who has experienced losses will qualify.

"The programs will assist most farms that have had significant losses," said a USDA spokesperson. "For those producers that have not experienced at least a 5% loss, there will not be payments.?When prices are not available for USDA to pre-determine eligibility, producers will be able to submit claims demonstrating at least a 5% loss, which will be adjudicated by FSA and AMS on a case-by-case basis.?The rulemaking will have more details on the scope of these payments."

The payment limit for this part of the CFAP program is $125,000 per commodity, with an overall limit of $250,000 per individual or entity. Qualified commodities must have experienced a 5% price decrease between January and April. Qualified commodities must have experienced a 5% price decrease between January and April, according to the USDA.

For those in the produce industry experiencing millions of dollars in losses a week, the relief both parts of the CFAP program offers doesn't seem like it will do much to plug the leaks in lost income. However, when you put it in the perspective of the program's main purpose, which is to sustain growers during this unprecedented situation that might otherwise go out of business, the relief funds are a good start to responding to the industry's needs.

"These programs aim to keep people employed and busy, and to try to provide an outlet for product that would otherwise be wasted on farms," Guenther says. "They're meant to sustain them through this difficult time until we all come out on the other end of COVID-19 and things get back to normal."

Guenther adds that helping players in the produce industry is not a one-size-fits-all situation.

"We are trying to put as many tools in the toolbox as we can right now to keep people solvent," he says.

Visit the United Fresh Produce Association's Coronavirus Resource Page for more details about the CFAP program and to get the latest updates on coronavirus relief for the produce industry. The association also partnered with AMS to host a webinar on April 23 discussing details around the CFAP Purchase and Distribution Program. Be sure to check out a recording of the informative webinar.

Source and Photo Courtesy of Greenhouse Grower

Source: Greenhouse Grower