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Opinion - Federal food aid cuts will cause America's hunger crisis to skyrocket
Opinion - Federal food aid cuts will cause America's hunger crisis to skyrocket

Yahoo

time12 hours ago

  • Business
  • Yahoo

Opinion - Federal food aid cuts will cause America's hunger crisis to skyrocket

The Daily Table, one of the largest food banks in Boston, recently announced it was closing its doors after serving more than 3 million people throughout the city over the past decade. The organization cited high food prices and an 'uncertain funding environment' as the main reasons. 'Without immediate funding to bridge us through 2025, we cannot continue,' read the group's farewell note to supporters. Pantries like the Daily Table across the country are struggling to stay open after the U.S. Department of Agriculture quietly cut $1 billion in 2025 funding back in March for food relief programs that have historically supported the nation's most disadvantaged communities. Specifically, the USDA abruptly slashed the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which supported food banks in addressing the growing hunger crisis in America. The agency also canceled the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program, USDA-led initiatives that paid farmers and ranchers to produce the food that pantries and schools distributed to those in need. '[Funding] is no longer available and those agreements will be terminated following 60-day notification,' a USDA spokesperson bluntly told Politico when the cuts were discovered. Food banks depend on federal funding to help those in need. The USDA cuts have hit these organizations hard, stifling their ability to fulfill their missions in West Virginia, New York, California, Maryland, Washington, Oregon and beyond. Three District of Columbia-area food banks have delivered 1.4 million fewer meals since the USDA action, and these numbers are certain to grow. The need for food banks has never been greater. According to the USDA's own data, over 47 million people resided in food-insecure households in 2023. Demand in Nebraska is four times greater than it was in 2018, while some food pantries in Texas are serving 25 percent more people today than before the pandemic. And in what may be the most troubling statistic of all, nearly half of the residents in Kentucky and Indiana face an impossible choice of either paying for food or covering their utility bills. The USDA actions were a potential blow to farmers — a constituency the Trump administration has vowed to protect. They also defy the Trump administration's 'Farmers First' agenda. 'The defense of the family farm is a defense of everything America has been — and everything we will be,' wrote USDA Secretary Brooke L. Rollins in announcing the imperative. 'It is my privilege to come to their defense.' Canceling these programs is a slap in the face to every farmer who relies on federal support to help vulnerable Americans receive the food they need to survive. These economic initiatives drive local agriculture and are a vital source of revenue, especially for small farm operators. The USDA cuts deepen the impact for those who already lack access to healthy meals. Before the USDA rollbacks began, nearly 10 million children were at risk of going hungry this summer due to states opting out of the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer program. Eliminating federal support for food banks will make their untenable situation even worse. And if House Republicans move forward with a plan to decimate the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program in their proposed budget bill, the hunger crisis in America could become a full-blown emergency. SNAP currently helps 40 million low-income families afford groceries every month. The House bill, if approved, would gut the program by more than $260 billion over the next 10 years to help offset the Trump administration's tax cut proposals. The House GOP plan puts an added burden on states to make up the difference in SNAP support, many of which are financially strapped and won't be able to cover the funding gap. The USDA cuts come at a time when food prices are expected to rise 3.5 percent in 2025 alone due to recent tariff increases. They will have a 'significant and damaging impact' for millions who rely on these programs for food support, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and other U.S. senators have argued. Administration officials and members of Congress alike should heed the warnings from those on the front lines who run food banks and have seen firsthand the impacts the USDA cuts have had on their ability to address food insecurity in their communities. 'We've never before faced a situation like we are in now,' said Michael McKee, CEO of Virginia-based Blue Ridge Area Food Bank. '[The] need is well beyond any disaster or financial crisis that we've seen, and the government's response is to take food away.' 'This isn't about ideology,' he added. 'It's about math.' Let's have compassion for those with nothing to eat by restoring food programs that offer them nourishment and hope for a better future. Lyndon Haviland is a distinguished scholar at the CUNY School of Public Health and Health Policy. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Sudan's aid workers fear crackdown under strict new army rules
Sudan's aid workers fear crackdown under strict new army rules

Al Jazeera

time5 days ago

  • Business
  • Al Jazeera

Sudan's aid workers fear crackdown under strict new army rules

Aid workers and activists are fearful that new regulations announced by Sudan's army-backed government will lead to a crackdown on local relief volunteers, exacerbating the catastrophic hunger crisis affecting 25 million people across the country. A directive announced by Khartoum state on its official Facebook page this month said all relief initiatives in the state must register with the Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC), a government body that oversees humanitarian operations in Sudan. The HAC was given expanded powers to register, monitor and – critics argue – crack down on local and Western aid groups by former leader Omar al-Bashir in 2006, according to aid groups, local relief volunteers and experts. 'HAC is trying to monitor and restrict the work of ERRs by forcing us to register, … and I fear they will arrest volunteers if we keep working but don't register,' Ahmed*, a local volunteer in Khartoum, said, referring to the Emergency Response Rooms, grassroots committees that are spearheading the humanitarian response in Sudan. Khaled Abdelraheem Ahmed, the HAC commissioner for the state of Khartoum, confirmed the new directive to Al Jazeera. He said registration requires paying a fee of roughly $800 and submitting a list of names of the employees or volunteers in each relief initiative. '[Nobody] is allowed to carry out humanitarian activities without registering,' Abdelraheem said. The new directive is raising concern among ERRs. They have been instrumental in feeding, protecting and rescuing civilians from attacks since the civil war erupted between Sudan's regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023. The ERRs maintain a public stance of neutrality in an effort to preserve humanitarian access irrespective of who controls the areas they operate in at any given time. Still, they have been attacked by both sides throughout the war. Local activists, foreign aid workers and experts now suspect that the HAC is trying to register ERRs in Khartoum to try to monitor and coopt their activities and profit from their already meagre budgets. Any constraints or impediments to their work could have devastating consequences for civilians in Khartoum, said Kholood Khair, a Sudan expert and the founder of the Confluence Advisory think tank. 'In Khartoum, it's one meal a day for a lot of people in a lot of areas,' she told Al Jazeera. 'If people start missing that one meal because [ERR] volunteers are not turning up because they don't feel safe enough to [show up and feed them], then obviously that means that famine levels will go through the roof,' Khair added. Experts and aid workers previously told Al Jazeera that they consider the HAC an outfit for military intelligence. Al Jazeera contacted army spokesperson Nabil Abdullah to comment on the accusations against the HAC. He did not respond before publication. The head of the HAC, Najm al-din Musa, previously denied allegations that the commission was involved in aid diversion, telling Al Jazeera that they were 'lies'. The HAC has long been accused of imposing bureaucratic impediments to prevent international aid groups from reaching regions outside the army's control. It often forces aid agencies to apply for multiple – seemingly endless – permissions from various ministries and security branches as a way to significantly delay or outright block access to regions outside the army's control and in urgent need, aid workers previously told Al Jazeera. This practice has led experts, global relief workers and human rights groups to accuse the army of using food and aid as a weapon of war. Yet Hamid Khalafallah, an expert on Sudan's grassroots movements and a PhD candidate at Manchester University in the United Kingdom, believes the HAC is further politicising aid by forcing ERRs to register. '[The HAC] wants to control the programming of [the ERRs] and make sure that it matches their priorities, … which are obviously politicised and follow the guidelines of the de facto [army] government,' he told Al Jazeera. In addition, local relief workers and experts fear that if ERR members in Khartoum register with the HAC, then their names could be handed over to intelligence branches, exposing them to unwanted harassment or arrest. Shortly after the army recaptured most of Khartoum in March, a number of 'hit lists' circulated over social media, Khalafallah said. The lists accused hundreds of civilians who did not have the resources to flee from the RSF while it controlled Khartoum of cooperating with the group. The names of some ERR members were on the lists. The army has created some of its own humanitarian committees called 'Karama' (Dignity), which have been providing some services to civilians in Khartoum, four local relief workers told Al Jazeera without providing details. The relief workers did say that the Karama committees have not tried to obstruct the work of the ERRs. Local volunteers still worry that the Karama committees were designed to help the army build a loyal constituency through aid provision. 'The [army] wants the services to go through the people they appoint. They will handle distribution of food, medicare and whatever else,' said Noon*, a local volunteer from one of the ERRs. 'It's a type of propaganda,' she told Al Jazeera. ERR volunteers worry that if they register with the HAC, then they will be prohibited from aiding their communities if they ever come back under RSF control. This could significantly harm the trust that ERR volunteers have built with their communities since the start of the war, they said. Others worry that the HAC will try to restrict and impede the work of ERRs once they register as part of a broader ploy to empower Karama committees at their expense. However, experts and international aid workers both said the army is not doing enough to repair basic services in a city that has been destroyed by the RSF. In contrast, the ERRs have been effective in acting quickly to mitigate the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan because volunteers do not need approval from a state authority before making life-saving decisions, Khalafallah said. 'This requirement [to register] with HAC is absolutely damaging for ERRs because the work they do is based on being totally independent and … [on having a model] where accountability looks downwards to the beneficiaries,' he said. The ERRs are struggling to raise enough money to support their communities. They now worry they will be forced to cough up money to the HAC if they have to register with it. 'We know that HAC will take a cut from our budgets. … This is the main problem [with registering] really,' Noon said. The HAC has a long history of shaking down aid agencies for money. Even before the war, they forced aid groups to hire HAC staff to deliver aid and sit in on job interviews. One foreign relief worker who did not wish to be named said international aid agencies who have supported ERRs since the start of the war will likely continue to do so quietly whether they register or not. However, the source warned that United Nations agencies may make concessions to the HAC. 'What the UN agrees to [with the HAC] will have an impact on everybody else, and it will undermine the position of everybody else,' the source said. Daniel Tengo, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) spokesperson for Sudan, told Al Jazeera that the UN has not decided whether it will maintain or cease support to ERRs that do not register with the HAC. He added that OCHA is in touch with ERRs and waiting for them to make a decision. 'OCHA is aware of the recent communication from Khartoum HAC and has reached out to the coordination body of the Emergency Response Rooms to better understand the implications,' he said. 'ERRs confirmed awareness of [HAC's directive] and indicated that internal discussions are ongoing on how best to respond,' Tengo told Al Jazeera. Local relief workers in Khartoum explained that each ERR in Khartoum will deliberate among its own members and then share their opinion with other ERRs. In the end, they will reach a unanimous decision. 'Maybe we will find another creative solution,' said Salma*, a local volunteer. 'We are just trying to find a way to keep working without creating more fights and problems,' she told Al Jazeera. *The names of local aid workers have been changed due to safety concerns.

Mum of emaciated baby in Gaza says 'I lost my husband... I don't want to lose her'
Mum of emaciated baby in Gaza says 'I lost my husband... I don't want to lose her'

Sky News

time23-05-2025

  • Health
  • Sky News

Mum of emaciated baby in Gaza says 'I lost my husband... I don't want to lose her'

In mid-May, the World Health Organisation assessed that there were "nearly half a million people in a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness and death". "This is one of the world's worst hunger crises, unfolding in real time," its report concluded. Israel 's decision this week to reverse the siege and allow "a basic level of aid" into Gaza should help ease the immediate crisis. But the number of aid trucks getting in, so far fewer than 100 per day, is considered dramatically too few by aid organisations working in Gaza, and the United Nations accuses Israel of continuing to block vital items. "Strict quotas are being imposed on the goods we distribute, along with unnecessary delay procedures," said UN secretary general Antonio Guterres in New York on Friday. "Essentials, including fuel, shelter, cooking gas and water purification supplies, are prohibited. Nothing has reached the besieged north." Nineteen of Gaza's hospitals remain operational, all of them are overwhelmed with the number of patients and a lack of supplies. "Today, we receive between 300 to 500 cases daily, with approximately 10% requiring admission. This volume of inpatient cases far exceeds the capacity of Rantisi hospital, as the facility is not equipped to accommodate such large numbers," Jall al Barawi, a doctor at the hospital, told us. At least 94% of the hospitals have sustained some damage, some considerable, according to the UN. Paramedic crews are close to running out of fuel to drive ambulances. The lack of food, after an 11-week blockade, has left thousands malnourished and increasingly vulnerable to surviving injuries or recovering from other conditions. Children are the worst affected. Our team in Gaza filmed with baby Aya at the Rantisi hospital in northern Gaza. She is now three months old and dangerously thin. Her skin stretches over her cheekbones and eye sockets on her gaunt, pale face. Her nappy is too big for her emaciated little body. Lethal spiral Her mother Sundush, who is only 19 herself, cannot get enough food to produce breastmilk. Baby formula is scarce. Aya, like so many other young children, cannot get the vital nutrition she needs to grow and develop. It's a lethal spiral. "My daughter was born at a normal weight, 3.5kg," Sundush tells us. "But as the war went on, her weight dropped significantly. I would breastfeed her, she'd get diarrhoea. I tried formula - same result. With the borders closed and no food coming in, I can't eat enough to give her the nutrients she needs." "I brought her to the hospital for treatment, but the care she needs isn't available. "The doctor said her condition is very serious. I really don't want to lose her, because I lost my husband and she's all I have left of him. I don't want to lose her." Some of the aid entering Gaza now is being looted. It is hard to know whether that is by Hamas or desperate civilians. Maybe a combination of the two. The lack of aid creates an atmosphere of desperation, which eventually leads to a breakdown in security as everyone fights to secure food for themselves and their families. Only by alleviating the desperation can the security situation improve, and the risk of famine abate.

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