FOREST PARK, Ga. — Sonny Perdue, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, was in Atlanta on Monday for an event that’s putting food on the tables of those who need it most. The former Georgia governor took a tour of Athena Farms distribution warehouse, then spoke about the Farmers to Families Food Box Program.
“Athena has become one of the companies,” Perdue said. “We've got Collins Brothers participating. We've got Nickey Gregory here, and they are the distributors that applied for this program to take food from farmers that was in threat of being destroyed, and distributing it to food banks and other faith and community-based nonprofits, so the people in need can have food.”
He was joined by Senator Kelly Loeffler and Representatives Rick Allen, Doug Collins, and Austin Scott. Perdue said the program, which is part of the Coronavirus Farm Assistance Program, is partnering the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) with national, regional and local suppliers whose workforce has been significantly impacted by the closure of restaurants, hotels and other food service businesses.
“Obviously, we did not design this program where it was a specific geographical area, so we know we have some coverage areas that we need to go back in and look at, solicit regionally there,” Perdue said. “Georgia and the southeast was well covered, because our produce is coming in now. There was a lot of interest in that. We have some demands in other parts of the country. We're going to go back and look at all those that for some reason did not qualify. It was a very competitive process and they were graded, but we will look and make sure it just wasn't technical.”
Perdue said he’s hopeful the areas that did not qualify will be able to participate in the future.
“We will have another round,” he said.
According to the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, the program will purchase $461 million in fresh fruits and vegetables, $317 million in dairy products, $258 million in meat products, and $175 million in a combination box of fresh produce, dairy, or meat products. Suppliers are packaging the products totaling $1.2 billion into family-sized boxes, then transport them to a variety of places through June 30.
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