USDA chief admits ‘mistakes’ as food shortages hit tribal populations, low-income seniors

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack acknowledged his department made "mistakes" in awarding a contract to a single distributor to supply critical food aid programs, a change that has triggered food shortages among low-income populations in at least eight states.

Since the contract with distributor Paris Brothers Inc. began in April, tribes have reported delayed and missed deliveries as part of the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations . The same issue has plagued the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which serves low-income seniors and food banks. That's left some of those program partners without key food staples, and many are now warning the shortages could get much worse in the next few months.

"We're learning that our system was flawed, and mistakes were made," Vilsack said Tuesday in an exclusive interview with POLITICO. "It's caused a lot of stress and a lot of difficulty, and we're trying to mitigate the consequences of that stress and difficulty as best we can."

The secretary added that USDA plans to bring Americold — the other distributor that previously fulfilled delivery contracts for the two food aid programs — back for a six-month contract, starting some time in the next few weeks. USDA has also brought in FEMA officials to help speed up food delivery and plans to bring in representatives from the Department of Defense after temporary FEMA officers leave their positions — steps that could prove costly for taxpayers.

Prior to this year, Paris Brothers and Americold had been the two distributors for the FDPIR and CSFP since 2007, according to Vilsack. Per regulations, USDA began a new bidding process for the contract in 2022, which was overseen by a panel made up of officials across USDA, including from the Food and Nutrition Service and the Agricultural Marketing Service. Of the seven viable applications USDA received, just one — Paris Brothers Inc. — met the requirements for the contract, Vilsack said. And he noted that the company had had a sterling record for timely and accurate delivery under the previous contract.

That said, the secretary acknowledged that senior staff should have been involved earlier in the decision and the response, saying senior staff should have reviewed the switch from two contractors to one to supply the programs, which serve a combined 770,000 people across the country.

Vilsack said that senior staff were not involved in USDA's response until several weeks after the delivery disruptions started creating food shortages. "By then, we were dealing with circumstances, pretty significant, pretty serious, and supply chains, once they come unraveled, it doesn't take much to unravel them, but it takes a great deal to get them back on track."

Details: The most severe food shortages and delivery disruptions this summer have been hitting tribes in North Dakota, South Dakota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington, according to three people familiar with the ongoing crisis who were granted anonymity to discuss the federal response.

Senior USDA officials have acknowledged to program advocates and Hill offices in recent days that the food shortages and delivery disruptions are ongoing.

USDA is urging groups that are part of those programs to place food orders as early as possible for September through early October deliveries, to ensure they have one-and-a-half months of food supplies on hand and give distributors enough time to make new deliveries. But Vilsack acknowledged they will have to be "flexible" on timing because the department failed to provide points of contact for tribes before the initial Aug. 28 deadline USDA set.

Food shortages: Mary Greene-Trottier, director of the food distribution program of the Spirit Lake Tribe in North Dakota, said in an interview that key staples like flour, meat and canned goods are currently not getting delivered to tribal communities that rely on FDPIR.

For Greene-Trottier’s tribe, the problems started in early July, when a food delivery truck failed to show up for a scheduled aid delivery.

“It slowly appeared that there was going to be a train wreck,” she said.

Greene-Trottier said the Spirit Lake Tribe, along with others, has asked USDA for a disaster declaration, which would unlock new food funding streams, and proposed other ad hoc solutions to replace the missing food deliveries, but USDA rejected their proposals.

USDA officials have indicated they don’t have any plans to reimburse tribes for past emergency expenses.

Rather, the agency said in a letter to program directors earlier this month that it would make funds from the Commodity Credit Corporation available for impacted tribes to directly purchase a certain amount of groceries going forward. However, those funds are expected to last only a few months.

Vilsack explained that the statute requires that CCC funds can be used for purchases only after the date the CCC was authorized — in this case, from Aug. 12 forward — and not retroactively.

According to Greene-Trottier, tribal leaders warned FNS representatives during tribal consultation meetings beginning in February that the transition to a single contractor would take more time than USDA was allotting and recommended a region-by-region transition. The new contract making Paris Brothers Inc. the sole distributor was inked in January and took effect in April.

“We knew there was going to be a problem because of the magnitude that [the vendor] took on,” she said.

As POLITICO reported, food banks that rely on CSFP are also escalating concerns about the impact of the unfulfilled food aid deliveries in the coming months. Advocates are warning that some food bank shelves are already completely bare and others have dwindling supplies, and they worry the end of the crisis is still likely months away.

Growing pressure from the Hill: Some Hill offices have been hearing about the problems directly from tribal populations and food banks for weeks now. Some tribes reported that at certain points, they weren't getting any warehouse food deliveries and have been relying on their own emergency funds to buy food from grocery stores.

House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.), an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation, said in an interview last week that he knew the food shortages and missing deliveries were hitting hard in Oklahoma because it is happening to his own tribe.

Lawmakers are demanding for USDA to address the backlogs and head off additional disruptions this fall. Three bipartisan groups of lawmakers, including a group of senators from impacted states, senior appropriators and the top two House Agriculture Committee leaders , have sent letters to USDA demanding answers and urging the department to head new food shortages this fall. And the pressure is growing. A larger bipartisan group of senators sent a letter to Vilsack on Tuesday pressing for more answers.