Biden pledges US$8 billion to fight hunger

US President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that the US $8 billion in new private sector spending will be used to fight hunger, including hundreds of millions of dollars for meals, after lawmakers did not extend pandemic-era nutrition supports like universal school meals and increased aid to food banks.

The pledges were part of the White House summit on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, the first since 1969, with participation from Biden, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, as well as several lawmakers and New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

If a parent can't feed their child, there's nothing else that matters to that parent, Biden said. We should be working together to bring the whole country together to work on this. Biden wants to end US hunger and reduce diet-related diseases in a majority of Americans by 2030 and has turned to the private sector to underwrite some of the spending after Congress did not extend school lunch aid.

Hunger climbed again after the end of child tax credit payments in January, while soaring food prices strain family budgets, as a result of pandemic assistance.

The aid provided by Congress was only extended through September 2022, which helped schools feed millions of US children over the last two years.

On Wednesday, a pledge by nonprofit FoodCorps was made by FoodCorps to invest $250 million for free, healthy school meals and to expand nutrition education in schools. In order to make it easier for people to use food stamp benefits online, the Food Industry Association promises to donate 2 billion meals to food banks and other organizations next year.

Over the next five years, Sysco will donate 200 million meals to national hunger-related charities and food banks, worth about US $400 million.

Senior administration officials briefing reporters didn't offer a timeline for the new aid but said details would be forthcoming.

The private sector commitments came after hundreds of millions of dollars were stolen from the federal government that was supposed to be spent on food aid during the coronavirus epidemic.

The administration will work closely with donors to ensure compliance, according to the officials.