Roxana Pardo Garcia knows food banks. As a kid, her family benefited from them, but with mixed feelings.
“They would give us stuff that we didn’t know what to do with,” she remembered. “And we were taking food from people who knew what to do with it.”
What they couldn’t use, they gave away, then got help from other people in their community, who shared their masa, beans, tortillas and spices.
“But you kind of starved
A food bank in Idaho Falls has announced that it will remove letters from President Donald Trump located inside its federal food assistance boxes that address recipient families.
Community Food Basket Director Ariel Jackson said in a post on social media that the organization would not be distributing the letter with their Farmers to Families food boxes, the Post Register reported.
“It will be incredibly time consuming to remove them before giving the food to families but it is also the right thing to do,” Jackson said, arguing that they are not a political organization and the letter is inappropriate.
The letter, signed by Trump, says that citizen health is his top priority and that he has “prioritized sending nutritious food from our farmers to families in need throughout America” in response to the pandemic. The letter also includes a list of recommended health practices.
The Community
Volunteers stand with boxes of produce at a drive-up produce giveaway | AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The San Diego Unified School District is removing letters from President Donald Trump that his administration placed inside food boxes as part of a federal coronavirus relief program for families in need.
Superintendent Cindy Marten, who oversees one of the nation’s largest school districts, told POLITICO on Tuesday that she has directed her food and nutrition services department to remove all letters from food boxes that have not already been distributed “in order to protect local families from being misled on how to protect themselves from becoming infected.”
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The USDA’s Farmers to Families Food Box Program redirects meat, dairy and produce to low-income families instead of the restaurants and other food-service businesses that normally receive them. The Trump administration has been criticized for mandating that a letter from Trump taking credit
The Maryland Food Bank and its partner organizations have given out 6.5 million pounds of produce, dairy, and meat to families in need through the federal Coronavirus Food Assistance Program since late May, on top of its usual donations.
But food bank officials are criticizing a new addition to the boxes this week, which they view as politically motivated. With a month to go before the election, President Donald Trump’s administration has begun requiring contractors to enclose a letter on White House letterhead, in English and Spanish, signed by Trump.
It touts the 50 million food boxes delivered to families across the country in the past four weeks and encourages hand-washing and good hygiene, staying home if you feel sick, protecting the elderly and other vulnerable people, practicing social distancing and wearing a face covering.
“As President, safeguarding the health and well-being of our citizens is one of my highest
The letters are sparking outrage among advocates, and the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank is removing the letters. Other health news about the Trump administration is on visitors at federal prisons; the Navy SEAL ethos; and checking the facts on President Donald Trump’s COVID program for those who are uninsured.
The Washington Post:
Food Banks Are Removing The Signed Letter Trump Wanted To Include In Every Food-Aid Box
Thirty-five days before the election, food assistance boxes, doled out at food banks around the country, are coming with a surprise: a signed letter from President Trump. Anti-hunger advocates and food bank workers are outraged, saying the move violates the Hatch Act and compromises relationships with the food-insecure Americans they serve. A letter in English and Spanish, on White House letterhead, exhorts needy Americans to wash hands and maintain social distance, closing with: “We will support Americans’ recovery every step of the way.
The U.S. Agriculture Department began mandating last week that millions of boxes of surplus food for families in need include a letter from President Donald Trump claiming credit for the program, Politico reported.
The USDA’s $4 billion Farmers to Families Food Box Program has distributed more than 100 million boxes to those in need since May. Food pantries and shelters handing out the aid complain the program is now being used to bolster Trump’s image a month before the election.
“In my 30 years of doing this work, I’ve never seen something this egregious,” said Lisa
The letter comes in both English and Spanish on White House letterhead and features Trump’s bold signature: “As President, safeguarding the health and well-being of our citizens is one of my highest priorities,” it reads. “As part of our response to coronavirus, I prioritized sending nutritious food from our farmers to families in need throughout America.”
The move is the latest example of Trump using the levers of government and taxpayer dollars for self-promotion as he runs for re-election. In the early months of the crisis, the president enclosed letters with his signature to millions of Americans getting stimulus money stemming from a congressional aid package – and made sure his name was printed on the checks. His health department is now rushing to push out a $300 million taxpayer-funded ad campaign promoting the administration’s coronavirus response.
The administration has denied that these moves are political or improper, despite outcries
Food pantries for months have relied on a government-sponsored food box program to serve a spike in needy families during the pandemic. But the latest batch of boxes includes an item some find unpalatable as the election nears: a letter signed by President Donald Trump.
![a group of people standing in a park: Workers help distribute food from the Greater Chicago Food Depository on Sept. 29, 2020, at the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation's food distribution site in the 7900 block of South Halsted Street in Chicago. Other boxes of food, not those from the GCFD, came from the federal government and contained a latter from The White House which bore the signature of President Donald Trump.](https://www.msn.com/{"default":{"load":"default","w":"80","h":"55","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB19AfYp.img?h=551&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"43","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB19AfYp.img?h=430&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"43","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB19AfYp.img?h=430&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"}})
© Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune/TNS
Workers help distribute food from the Greater Chicago Food Depository on Sept. 29, 2020, at the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation’s food distribution site in the 7900 block of South Halsted Street in Chicago. Other boxes of food, not those from the GCFD, came from the federal government and contained a latter from The White House which bore the signature of President Donald Trump.
The letter, printed in both English and Spanish on White House letterhead, highlights the Farmers to Families Food Box program and includes general safety information for preventing COVID-19 transmission.
It does not mention
CHICAGO — Food pantries for months have relied on a government-sponsored food box program to serve a spike in needy families during the pandemic. But the latest batch of boxes includes an item some find unpalatable as the election nears: a letter signed by President Donald Trump.
![text, letter: Some of the boxes of food distributed on September 29, 2020, by the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation in Chicago came from the federal government and contained a latter from the White House, bearing the signature of President Donald Trump.](https://www.msn.com/{"default":{"load":"default","w":"80","h":"60","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB19AwPo.img?h=605&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"47","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB19AwPo.img?h=473&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"47","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB19AwPo.img?h=473&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"}})
© Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/TNS
Some of the boxes of food distributed on September 29, 2020, by the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation in Chicago came from the federal government and contained a latter from the White House, bearing the signature of President Donald Trump.
The letter, printed in both English and Spanish on White House letterhead, highlights the Farmers to Families Food Box program and includes general safety information for preventing COVID-19 transmission.
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It does not mention the Nov. 3 election, but some local food pantries say it’s inappropriate and plan to remove the letter before distributing the boxes to families.
(Washington, D.C., September 29, 2020) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced today that more than 100 million food boxes have been distributed in support of American farmers and families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farmers to Families Food Box Program. Earlier this month, the Department announced it had entered into contracts with 50 entities for the third round of food box deliveries, which include contracts to purchase up to $1 billion authorized by President Donald J. Trump.
“It is incredible to think that in a little more than five months, this food box program has gone from an idea to a reality that has provided more than 100 million boxes of nutritious foods to people in need and along the way has helped to keep farmers and ranchers in business and allowed Americans working in our nation’s food supply chain to
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