KANSAS WHEAT COMMISSION
See a need, fill a need. That was the vision of the Kansas wheat farmer who first proposed donating surplus Kansas grain to people in need around the world. Today, U.S. food aid programs continue to serve this goal, using about one million metric tons (36.74 million bushels) of U.S. wheat annually. Kansas Wheat CEO Justin Gilpin joined a recent learning journey, organized by U.S. Wheat Associates (USW), to get an up-close look at food aid programs at work in East Africa and how this goodwill lays the foundation for future trade relationships.
“Food for Peace and Food for Progress are key programs and policies that were originally started by U.S. farmers and still supported by U.S. farmers,” Gilpin said. “We are in an increasingly important environment right now with dynamic changes in policy, seeing the critical work that food aid provides for those who are in need.”
“We are also introducing our product into a market. Africa creates a unique opportunity where we can provide humanitarian assistance to those who are in need through food aid with wheat, specifically being a high priority food, but then ultimately building goodwill and developing a commercial partner.”
The food aid learning journey took U.S. wheat industry leaders to Kenya and Lesotho to examine the transportation, distribution and impact of the two main U.S. food assistance programs — Food for Peace and Food for Progress.
Food for Peace Feeds Hungry People
The Food for Peace program supplies in-kind donations of food products, of which wheat makes up the largest proportion of emergency food assistance. The program started as a proposal by Kansas farmer Peter O’Brien in September 1953. In 1954, U.S. Senator Andy Schoeppel, a Kansas Senator, sponsored the precursor to today’s food aid programs as legislation, which was later signed by another Kansan, President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The team saw the impact of Food for Peace donations firsthand at the Kakuma Refugee Camp, which hosts about 300,000 refugees from a variety of countries across East and Central Africa. The camp is managed by the World Food Programme (WFP), which aims to provide refugees with the standard 2,100 calories each person needs daily. Reaching that goal is not always possible.
Peter Laudeman, USW director of trade policy, explained that due to other global conflicts and distribution issues, the camp was only able to provide 65 percent of the caloric need in the provided ration. At the time of the learning journey, that ration was down to 40 percent with the expectation that it could move as low as 20 percent, making it imperative to get resources — like available U.S. HRW wheat — moving into these programs.
“This is not a well-rounded meal of fresh fruits and vegetables; it’s truly just the basic calories of what you need for the month to live,” Laudeman said. “When you think visually about it, you’re basically getting a two-cup scoop and that’s what you get for the month. What we saw more than anything is that there is a substantial need for more food in that camp. We know we have wheat available in the United States."
The Food for Peace program is administered by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which is set to be absorbed by the U.S. Department of State. The U.S. wheat industry is actively advocating for the Food for Peace program to be administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which already administers the sourcing and procurement of commodities like wheat for the Food for Peace program.
“Moving Food for Peace into USDA is going to be more efficient and more effective,” Laudeman said. “Not just for farmers in the United States to have more predictability, but also for groups like the WFP to have consistency, so we are working really hard to make sure that’s a possibility.”
Food for Progress Builds Economies
The second major food aid program in the United States is the Food for Progress program. Under this program, donations of wheat are monetized, which refers to the sale of in-kind donations of U.S. food commodities in recipient countries for local currency. Through monetization, the United States, through USDA and USAID, provides food commodities, like wheat, to a cooperating sponsor, a recipient government or a non-governmental organization. The recipient then can sell that commodity to local processors or traders and the proceeds can be used for developmental projects.
On the learning journey, Gilpin traveled with Laudeman to Maseru, Lesotho, to get a look at the STEPS Food for Progress project run by Venture 37. The project was funded by wheat monetization in Tanzania that is building capacity for the poultry sector within Lesotho.
“The project in Lesotho is actively working across the entire poultry value chain to enhance productivity, target strategic long-term investments and build economic opportunity in partnership with the United States,” Laudeman said. “As an added benefit, many elements of the STEPS project connect to commercial export opportunities for U.S. farmers.”
This project is an example of the vision of the Food for Progress program — how government-facilitated commercial scales can build up economies and establish relationships with future trading partners. The wheat industry actively advocates for this program, including recent support to ensure a spring food aid shipment of 286,000 metric tons (10.5 million bushels) of HRW wheat proceeded as planned.
That shipment came through the port of Mombasa in Kenya, which the team visited earlier in the learning journey, along with the mill that worked to bring in the shipment of wheat and move it through Kenya to the end destination of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. While no subsequent shipments are currently scheduled, this shipment represented the work needed to ensure food aid programs provide the right resources in the right places without market distortions.
“We worked to make sure that shipment went out to commercial partners in different markets that were planning on receiving that wheat,” Laudeman said. “We’re hopeful that once we have a better vision of how food aid will be structured in the long-term there will be more opportunities to share how shipments of wheat like this one work well in these programs, whether it is in Kenya or anywhere else.”
Food Aid Makes Good Cents
Overall, the USW learning journey underscored the enduring legacy and critical role of U.S. wheat in food aid programs. For Kansas wheat farmers, this work serves as a strong reminder of the power of feeding the world — both those in need today and those who will buy tomorrow.
“This USW learning journey gave us a great opportunity to learn about these important food aid programs that were originally started by farmers and still supported by farmers,” Gilpin said. “We were able to see tremendous growth through East Africa, including the role wheat plays in that market as humanitarian assistance and the market potential for future commercial activity.”
Learn more about the USW learning journey here.