Video: Kaine Grills Trump Administration Over Incineration of Food for Starving Children

Video: Kaine Grills Trump Administration Over Incineration of Food for Starving Children

“Yesterday, The Atlantic reported that the expiration date on those 500 tons of nutritious food for starving kids was now upon us, and the U.S. had decided to incinerate that food rather than allow starving children to have it,” said Kaine. “Mr. Rigas, you’re the Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources. These are resources that were purchased with U.S. taxpayer dollars. They’re specifically designed to save the lives of starving children. Why is it a good use of resources to not distribute that food to kids and instead burn it?”

Rigas responded, “I’d have to look into that particular issue and see how those foodstuffs got there.”

“I asked this question at a hearing yesterday so you would be prepared to know that I would ask it today, and we called your office to tell you that I would ask it today. So the notion that you need to look into it strikes me as a little bit odd. As you sit here today, is that food being distributed to kids or is it being incinerated?” Kaine asked.

“If it’s been expired, my understanding is it’s the policy of the government to not distribute expired food or medicine,” Rigas responded.

“We’ve been asking Secretary Rubio about this back into March. Since it has been known for months that this food would have an expiration date, why has the State Department decided to burn it rather than distribute it to starving children?” Kaine pressed.

“I don’t have a good answer for that question,” Rigas said. “I am as distressed about that as you are.”

Rigas continued, “I think that this was just a casualty of the shutdown of USAID.”

“I view at as an intentional thing,” Kaine continued. “It’s not a mistake if you’ve been on notice of it for two months, and you’ve made the decision to keep the warehouse locked and allow this food to be destroyed rather than … feed at least 27,000 acutely malnourished children for a month.”

“I’d have to look into what the facts of the matter were,” Rigas responded.

“Sometimes the tiniest detail really exposes the soul,” Kaine concluded. “A government that is put on notice—here are resources that will save 27,000 starving kids. Can you please distribute them or give them to someone who can? Who decides, ‘no, we would rather keep the warehouse locked, let the food expire, and then burn it?’ To me, that really exposes the soul of this endeavor.”

Rigas concluded by saying that he would look into it and find out what happened.

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This is either Incompetence, defiance of giving aid, a warped sense of administrative priorities, or a combination of all three. One thing is for sure, it's a prime example of government waste of taxpayer dollars.

 

The Trump Administration Is About to Incinerate 500 Tons of Emergency Food

Federal workers warned for months that the high-energy biscuits would go to waste.

Five months into its unprecedented dismantling of foreign-aid programs, the Trump administration has given the order to incinerate food instead of sending it to people abroad who need it.

Nearly 500 metric tons of emergency food—enough to feed about 1.5 million children for a week—are set to expire tomorrow, according to current and former government employees with direct knowledge of the rations. Within weeks, two of those sources told me, the food, meant for children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, will be ash. (The sources I spoke with for this story requested anonymity for fear of professional repercussions.)

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US set to destroy 500 tons of US-taxpayer funded emergency food

The United States is set to destroy nearly 500 metric tons of US-taxpayer funded emergency food meant for starving people around the world.

Now, because they expire this month, they will have to be destroyed – at an extra $100,000 charge to the American taxpayers.

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