African recipients of US assistance. Photo Courtesy of USAID.
Food for Peace Program
To help reduce food surpluses, in 1954 Congress created a “Food for Peace” program that exported surplus farm products to needy countries. Most of the food sent overseas in the 1950s and 1960s went to India. Today, the Food for Peace program continues to send food supplies around the world to combat famine and hunger. In the 1990’s, Food for Peace also sent more than 5,000 American farmers to foreign countries to live and work with farmers there.