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Trump Administration to Incinerate Nearly 500 Tons of Expired Emergency Food Aid

Bureaucratic delays under new political appointees have left most pre-purchased high-energy biscuits expired, headed for destruction after a partial salvage deal in June.

Image
Rahma Kaki Jubarra and her sons, who are emergency level malnourished, Farah, 9 months and Jabr, three and a half, receive aid at Almanar feeding center in Mayo Mandala on the outskirts of Omdurman, Sudan, on May 25, 2025.
U.S. President Donald Trump.
The shadow of a Philippine Army personnel is cast on boxes of relief items from U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for the victims of super typhoon Haiyan, at Villamor Air Base in Manila November 13, 2013.

Overview

  • USAID’s Dubai warehouse holds 496 tons of high-energy emergency biscuits that expired this month and will be incinerated at an extra $100,000 cost to U.S. taxpayers.
  • The stock, purchased under the previous administration for about $800,000, could have fed roughly 1.5 million children for a week.
  • In June, internal memos spurred a deal to redirect 622 tons of the biscuits to the World Food Programme for distribution in Syria, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
  • Distribution stalled after the Department of Government Efficiency subsumed USAID into the State Department and placed Pete Marocco followed by Jeremy Lewin in charge of approving aid shipments.
  • Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers in May that no food aid would be wasted despite the incineration order having already been issued.