U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) welcomes the announcement of the award of 20,000 metric tons (MT) (735,000 bushels) for emergency feeding programs under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) administration of the Food for Peace program.
“We appreciate the efforts of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Luke Lindberg and their teams for their hard work to bring this first award of wheat under the USDA’s administration of the Food for Peace program,” said Dalton Henry, USW vice president of communications and policy.
The wheat is destined for emergency feeding programs in East Africa, which will be delivered by the World Food Program. Shipment is expected to take place later this summer along with other commodities, including rice and sorghum.
“This is the first of hopefully many shipments under the USDA’s administration of the Food for Peace program,” said Amanda Hoey, chief executive officer of the Oregon Wheat Commission and chair of the USW Food Aid Working Group. “Through this program, we reaffirm to the world that the United States is more than a seller of grain, but a dedicated partner in feeding millions of hungry people around the world.”
Food for Peace, also known as Public Law 480, was signed into law in 1954 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Since the program’s inception, U.S.-grown wheat has remained an important commodity for food assistance, often representing half of the bulk in-kind aid and routinely using around one million metric tons of U.S. wheat annually.
In December 2025, the USDA and the U.S. Department of State signed an interagency agreement to USDA to assume administration of the Food for Peace program. The USDA already operates the other in-kind international feeding programs, including the school feeding-focused McGovern-Dole Food for Education and the development-focused Food for Progress programs.
Click here to see more...