Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 5/14/20

The Agriculture Department’s plan to distribute boxes of surplus food to people in need has led to multimillion-dollar contracts going to companies that appear to have little experience working with food banks or farmers, report our Helena Bottemiller Evich and Ryan McCrimmon.

Among the recipients: an event planning company in San Antonio, Texas, known for throwing lavish weddings and high-end conferences; a company that sells hand sanitizers, lotions and other wellness products in airports and online; and a California firm that offers “business finance solutions.”

Food industry companies have been quietly grousing about whether some of the recipients can pull off the task of buying up a variety of perishable food items; packing them in easy-to-distribute boxes; and then providing the boxes to food banks and other nonprofits where people in need can pick them up.

Some big-name food businesses like Sysco did not receive contracts. But other large companies earned winning bids: Borden Dairy, a major dairy company that filed for bankruptcy in January, was awarded a huge, $147 million contract, for example.

The San Antonio firm, CRE8AD8 (pronounced “create a date”), intends to hire 125 new employees to help get the boxes out starting by Friday. “We didn’t know the potential or even to what extent we could help, but we saw an opportunity to do some good during this challenging time and took a chance,” CEO Gregorio Palomino said in a statement on Facebook. “We had no idea we’d be asked to help on this level. It’s truly awesome.”

The $1.2 billion program has been praised as an innovative solution to the problem of excess food as millions of Americans receive food assistance and unemployment ticks up amid the pandemic. A USDA spokesperson said in a statement that winning proposals included “many small businesses and those that will support local and regional farmers, which was part of the evaluation criteria for contract award.”