{"id":20366,"date":"2024-08-25T10:37:59","date_gmt":"2024-08-25T14:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/?p=20366"},"modified":"2024-09-09T10:45:30","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T14:45:30","slug":"senators-demand-action-from-usda-over-disruptions-to-tribal-food-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/senators-demand-action-from-usda-over-disruptions-to-tribal-food-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators demand action from USDA over disruptions to tribal food program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tribalbusinessnews.com\/sections\/food-agriculture\/14816-senators-demand-action-from-usda-over-disruptions-to-tribal-food-program?ref=nativeoklahoma.us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tribal Business News <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A bipartisan group of senators have voiced concerns to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack about disruptions to a federal program that provides essential food deliveries to income-eligible Native American households.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the past few months, tribal families have experienced\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/tribalbusinessnews.com\/sections\/food-agriculture\/14767-native-food-distribution-program-disrupted-amid-usda-warehouse-consolidation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">extreme disruptions in food deliveries<\/a>\u00a0under the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR), receiving only partial deliveries or none at all.\u00a0 The disruptions follow an attempt by the USDA to consolidate its warehouse operations last spring.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Aug. 23\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/23.08.23-FDPIR-Letter-Final.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">letter<\/a>, which was first reported by the Associated Press, the senators urge the USDA to take immediate action to restore food deliveries and engage in meaningful consultation with impacted tribes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are deeply concerned about the crisis unfolding with the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) program,\u201d the letter notes. \u201cParticipating households have not had consistent food deliveries for over four months. This is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), John Hoeven (R-ND), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) , and Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) signed the letter.&nbsp; Mullin, an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, is the only Native American serving in the Senate.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The disruptions began in April, after the USDA consolidated operators for FDPIR down to a single source: Kansas City, Missouri-based Paris Brothers, Inc. Once the consolidation of warehouse operations commenced, food distribution program administrators across the country began having problems getting food in on time, if at all.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDeliveries are not showing up, and we don\u2019t know they\u2019re missing until they don\u2019t show up,\u201d Mary Greene Trottier, president of the National Association for FDPIR, told\u00a0<em>Tribal Business News<\/em>\u00a0in a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/tribalbusinessnews.com\/sections\/food-agriculture\/14767-native-food-distribution-program-disrupted-amid-usda-warehouse-consolidation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">July 13 story<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re hearing from almost every tribe participating in the program that they\u2019ve been impacted in some way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking on background for that same story, a USDA representative attributed the disruptions to \u201cchallenges with scaling operations\u201d once all the demand fell onto a singular contractor. The agency has since held weekly meetings with impacted tribal organizations, but hasn\u2019t established a timeline for resuming normal operations.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to an&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/usda-tribal-food-distribution-senate-letter-d749e8199631161c428412699863ff6e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Associated Press report<\/a>&nbsp;on Friday, the USDA has also promised to undertake a review of its procurement process, and offered $11 million to tribal nations to address food shortages. Trottier, who administers FDPIR for the Spirit Lake Nation, said she isn\u2019t sure the money will be enough, however.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c[People are] going without,\u201d Trottier told the AP. \u201cImagine showing up at the grocery store during Covid or a winter blizzard, and the shelves are empty. That\u2019s the feeling that they get.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tribal Business News A bipartisan group of senators have voiced concerns to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack about disruptions to a federal program that provides essential food deliveries to income-eligible Native American households.&nbsp; For the past few months, tribal families have experienced\u00a0extreme disruptions in food deliveries\u00a0under the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR), receiving only [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[118],"class_list":["post-20366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","tag-delivering-for-oregon"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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