Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 3/18/20

A bipartisan group of 24 senators is asking FEMA to coordinate with USDA and the Interior Department to deploy federal workers trained in emergency response to rural communities overwhelmed by the pandemic. The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management are "uniquely qualified," the senators wrote.

And the Farm Credit Administration, which oversees a network of government-backed lenders for the ag sector, called on institutions to work with borrowers whose operations are affected by the virus. FCA Board Chairman Glen Smith said lenders can extend the terms of loan repayments, restructure debt obligations and ease some loan documentation terms for certain borrowers.

USDA also announced an initiative to deliver 1 million meals per week to rural students whose schools have closed because of the virus. The department is partnering with PepsiCo and the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, a food logistics company, to provide boxes with five days' worth of healthy, shelf-stable, individually packaged foods, reports our Liz Crampton.