Chairman David Scott Praises USDA’s Establishment of Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program

WASHINGTON(December 8, 2021)– House Agriculture Committee Chairman David Scott issued the following statement praising the USDA’s announcement of a $400 million Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA).

In addition to the $400 million that will be available for emergency food assistance purchases of domestic foods, there will also be up to $50 million available for the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) Reach and Resiliency Grants.

“These investments come at an important time and will help to transform and make our food system fairer and more resilient by expanding economic opportunity for historically underserved producers and getting domestic food products into the communities that need them the most. I applaud the work that the USDA, under the leadership of Secretary Vilsack, continues to do to ensure that our nation builds back better, and I look forward to supporting this work in the Agriculture Committee,” said Chairman David Scott.

The investments are part of USDA’s Build Back Better Food System Transformation initiative authorized by the American Rescue Plan and are among the programs derived from a$1 billion investment announced earlier this year to serve as a bridge from the immediate need to provide producers with support via the Pandemic Assistance Initiative to longer-term investments in food system transformation.