The Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983 (P.L. 98-92) amended the original

Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983 The Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983 (TEFAA) ( P.L. 98-8) was a supplemental appropriations act for FY 1983 that, among other things, explicitly authorized a discretionary commodity donation effort begun in 1981 by the USDA. The i ...

(P.L. 98-8) to authorize multi-year

funding Funding is the act of providing resources to finance a need, program, or project. While this is usually in the form of money, it can also take the form of effort or time from an organization or company. Generally, this word is used when a firm uses ...

and

commodity In economics, a commodity is an economic good, usually a resource, that has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them. The price of a comm ...

donation A donation is a gift for charity, humanitarian aid, or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including money, alms, services, or goods such as clothing, toys, food, or vehicles. A donation may satisfy medical needs such as blo ...

s from excess

Commodity Credit Corporation The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) is a wholly owned United States government corporation that was created in 1933 to "stabilize, support, and protect farm income and prices" (federally chartered by the CCC Charter Act of 1948 (P.L. 80-806) ...

(CCC) inventories of

foodstuff Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is inge ...

s for

food distribution Food distribution is the process where a general population is supplied with food. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) considers food distribution as a subset of the food system. The process and methodology behind food distribution varies ...

emergency feeding organization An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...

s serving the needy and

homeless Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are: * living on the streets, also kn ...

(7 U.S.C. 7501 et seq.). It subsequently was amended in 1985, 1988, 1990, 1996 and 2002 under the 2002 farm bill (P.L. 107-171, Sec. 4126, Sec. 4204). This is the

Emergency Food Assistance and Soup Kitchen-Food Bank Program The Emergency Food Assistance and Soup Kitchen-Food Bank Program (EFAP-Soup Kitchens) provides United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) commodities to emergency feeding organizations to help with the food needs of low-income populations. ...

. The law authorizes funding through FY2007 to buy and donate commodities and to provide grants to cover the state and local costs of transporting, storing, and distributing these commodities to emergency feeding organizations,

soup kitchen A soup kitchen, food kitchen, or meal center, is a place where food is offered to the Hunger, hungry usually for free or sometimes at a below-market price (such as via coin donations upon visiting). Frequently located in lower-income neighborhoo ...

s, and

food bank A food bank is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough to avoid hunger, usually through intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens. Some food banks distribute food direc ...

s serving low-income persons. In addition to discretionary funds authorized to be appropriated by this law, there is a requirement that $100 million of

food stamp In the United States, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, is a federal program that provides food-purchasing assistance for Poverty in the United States, low- and no-income people. It ...

appropriations be used annually to buy commodities for emergency feeding organizations.

References

*{{CRS, article = Report for Congress: Agriculture: A Glossary of Terms, Programs, and Laws, 2005 Edition, url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110810044532/http://ncseonline.org/nle/crsreports/05jun/97-905.pdf, author= Jasper Womach United States federal agriculture legislation United States federal welfare and public assistance legislation