GAO report looks at USDA Food Box Program

The Government Accountability Office’s new report on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s pandemic-era Food Box Program said the agency lacks data to accurately measure how well the program succeeded in meeting all of its goals.

The program delivered more than 176 million boxes of food from May 2020 to June 2021.

The USDA’s goals for the program included providing food to those in need, helping contractors retain jobs, and supporting producers, the GAO report said. 

However, the report said the USDA could not analyze the program’s performance in meeting its other two goals: 
(1) helping contractors (i.e., distributors of goods) retain jobs and;
(2) helping food producers faced with declining demand—because USDA did not systematically collect the necessary data.

For example, the GAO report said the USDA did not collect data on the number of jobs contractors might have lost but ultimately retained as a result of participating in the program. In addition, the agency did not have data on the number, category, and size of participating producers, or whether the pandemic had reduced demand for or sales of the type of product the producer provided for the program, the GAO said.

The report said USDA officials acknowledged that a key lesson learned during the implementation of the Food Box Program was the need to collect and analyze such data but that the department did not have time to do so. 
“Federal guidance expresses the importance of balancing speed with transparency, and states that federal managers should use data and evidence to achieve program goals,” the GAO report said. “By applying this lesson learned to current and future emergency food assistance programs, USDA would have greater assurance that it can assess program effectiveness even when it must move quickly in implementing a program.”

The United Fresh Produce Association released said the GAO report was helpful.
“The GAO report further validates how the USDA and the fresh produce industry can partner to tackle food and nutritional insecurity access challenges in innovative and effective ways,” United Fresh said in a statement.

“Despite the measurable gains over the past year to address food insecurity, including increases in SNAP benefits, nutrition insecurity has not gone away. That is why United Fresh encourages Congress and the Administration to craft policy and programs that provide new solutions to age old challenges for those most in need.”