Federal Surplus Relief Corporation
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The Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation was one of the so-called alphabet agencies set up in the United States during the 1930s as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. Created in 1933 as the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation, its name was changed by charter amendment on November 18, 1935. In 1937 its administration was placed within the United States Department of Agriculture. In 1940 it was combined with other USDA initiatives to form the Surplus Marketing Administration. It was abolished February 23, 1942, with the creation of the Agricultural Marketing Administration. The purpose of the agency was to divert agricultural commodities from the open market, where prices were depressed by surplus farm products, to destitute families. As of 2012, the Federal purchase and distribution of surplus food still continues, now under the auspices of the Emergency Food Assistance Program.


History

In summer 1933, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration tried to boost the wholesale price of agricultural produce through an artificial scarcity initiative, in which crops were plowed up or left to rot and six million pigs were killed and discarded. The public outcry over this waste of resources led to the October 1933 establishment of the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation, which aimed to divert commodities such as apples, beans, canned beef and cotton to local relief organizations. In December 1933, the agency distributed three million tons of coal to the unemployed of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa and in September 1934 shipped 692,228,274 pounds of foodstuffs to the unemployed in 30 US states. On November 18, 1935, its name was changed to the Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation, and the Secretary of Agriculture, Henry A. Wallace at that time, the head of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, and the governor of the
Farm Credit Administration The Farm Credit Administration is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States. Its function is to regulate the financial institutions that provide credit to farmers. Authority The Farm Credit Administration is an indep ...
were placed on its board of directors. The Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation was the first federal contribution to the
school lunch programs A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compul ...
and the first step toward the national school lunch program. In March 1937, there were 3,839 schools receiving commodities for lunch programs serving 342,031 children daily. Two years later, the number of schools participating had grown to 14,075 and the number of children had risen to 892,259. The Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation was continued as an agency under the secretary of agriculture by acts of June 28, 1937 (50 Stat. 323) and February 16, 1938 (52 Stat. 38). The agency was consolidated with Division of Marketing and Marketing Agreements into Surplus Marketing Administration by Reorg. Plan No. III of 1940, then merged into Agricultural Marketing Administration by
Executive Order In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of t ...
9069 of February 23, 1942. After World War II, the Federal purchase and distribution of food services continued. In the 1960s, counties began to cease distributing the surpluses direct to low income individuals, instead providing an early form 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 ...
. Since 1990, the main program responsible for the distribution of surpluses has been 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. ...
. In the 1980s, the program was called the
Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program The Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) is a program that evolved out of surplus commodity donation efforts begun by the USDA in late 1981 to dispose of surplus foods (especially cheese) held by the Commodity Credit Corporation ( ...
. It is now often referred to as the ''Emergency Food Assistance Program'' and is administrated by the
USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...
. As of 2012, surpluses are still distributed, though to
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 direct ...
s and other emergency food agencies, not directly to individuals.


See also

*
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) ...
*
Government cheese Government cheese is processed cheese provided to welfare beneficiaries, Food Stamp recipients, and the elderly receiving Social Security in the United States, as well as to food banks and churches. This processed cheese was used in military k ...
* Milo Randolph Perkins * Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program


References


External links

{{authority control New Deal agencies Food security in the United States Waste in the United States Pork United States Department of Agriculture agencies 1933 establishments in the United States Corporations chartered by the United States Congress