Wisconsin Food Banks Benefiting from Trade War
Thursday, November 14th, 2019 -- 10:40 AM
(WRN) -Wisconsin food banks are benefiting from the U.S.-China Trade War.They've taken in nearly 25-million pounds of food from a federal distribution program. WKOW-TV spoke with Kitty Kocol of the Emergency Food Assistance program in Madison.
"Because the idea is to help farmers, there's a larger number of agriculture producers involved in this program than there ever have been in the past."
David Vobora tells WKOW-TV that in the last year, there was an increase of more than three-million pounds of food; that's about a 50-percent increase.
"Anytime that we can connect from the farm to folks that need food, that's a good thing. That's part of why we're here, that's part of what we try to accomplish."
Since the 1980s, the government has purchased surplus crops from farmers whose markets are impacted by changes in international trade. That product is then processed and shipped to food banks across the country. About 20 charities in Wisconsin distribute surplus food to people in need.
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