Source:POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 5/12/20

Industry leaders are asking the Agriculture Department for answers after many produce distributors who thought they would get contracts in the agency’s new fresh box program were denied.

“This is not 'sour grapes’ from those that may not have been awarded; this is a genuine effort to ensure integrity and confidence in the program and that fresh produce actually gets to those in need in an efficient and cost-effective way,” said Tom Stenzel, CEO of the United Fresh Produce Association, in a letter to the department on Monday.

The letter poses no fewer than 15 questions to USDA, wanting to know more about the process and how decisions were made.

The backstory: USDA’s Farmers to Families Food Box Program is a new concept that just about everyone sees as innovative, even if it was weeks late out of the gate. The goal is to spend $300 million a month on a mix of fresh produce, dairy and meat products and distribute the boxes to food banks and other nonprofits.

But when USDA late Friday released the names of the companies selected for the program, large swaths of industry leaders were not on the list, including FreshPoint, the largest distributor of fresh fruits and vegetables in the country.

“We know of several upstanding companies that are current government contractors to USDA and the DOD Fresh program who were seemingly denied on mistaken grounds,” United Fresh said.