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A Brief History of TEFAP In December 1981, President Ronald Reagan authorized the release of surplus dairy products in government warehouses for distribution to needy households in an effort to reduce federal inventories and storage costs. For over a year, there was a relatively unrestricted giveaway of cheese, butter, and nonfat dry milk by public and private non-profit organizations. In 1983, Congress created the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) to give structure to the distributions. Administrative funds were provided to help distribute the food and minimal eligibility guidelines were imposed on families for its receipt. In its first five years, TEFAP successfully served its intended purpose of distributing large stores of government commodities. Although TEFAP began as a temporary program, intended to end when the surpluses ran out, people came to rely on the dietary supplements the program provided. In 1988, as the surpluses diminished, the federal government began providing funds to purchase food for TEFAP. In 1990, Congress acknowledged the ongoing need for the program and dropped the word "Temporary" from the program name, substituting "The" to maintain the same acronym. In subsequent years, TEFAP has continued to distribute government-purchased and surplus commodities, along with other donated food products. Administrative funds, allocated mostly to cover transportation and storage costs, have become crucial to the infrastructure of the emergency food network, and in many locales, particularly rural areas, may be the only money available to obtain, store, and distribute emergency food supplies. TEFAP commodities are frequently integrated with other donated items distributed by food pantries and food banks to supply a more complete meal package. TEFAP remains popular, in part, due to the minimal paperwork required. Eligibility forms are simple and contain only half a dozen questions or less, and self-declaration of income is common. The types of foods offered in the program have changed substantially over the years. In the early 1980’s, primarily surplus dairy and grain products (cheese, butter, flour, rice, etc.) were provided. As the surpluses disappeared, Congress urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to buy a wider variety of more nutritious foods. As a result, the product mix now includes such items as orange juice, peanut butter, tuna, macaroni, and applesauce. Canned vegetables, canned and dried fruits, juices, and canned and frozen meats are also currently available to TEFAP. Moreover, TEFAP foods have been an important source of disaster relief, since they are readily available in most instances and packaged in sizes appropriate for household use. Following the 1998-1999 freeze in the Central Valley and the January 1994 Northridge earthquake in Southern California, millions of pounds of food from the program were shipped to those areas for food assistance purposes. TEFAP foods, shipped from across the nation to the Gulf Coast, helped provide immediate assistance to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in August and September of 2005. In 1998, the former Soup Kitchens/Food Banks (SK/FB) program was repealed and folded into TEFAP. The expanded TEFAP has been revised to incorporate and accommodate the organizations that participated in the SK/FB. Under the new program definitions, entities distributing TEFAP foods are known as either emergency feeding organizations (EFOs) or eligible recipient agencies (ERAs). Volunteers are essential to program operations. Although EFOs and ERAs get minimal funding for distribution (transportation and storage) costs and administrative duties, such as handling recipient applications, the hard work of loading, unloading, and handing out the food is often performed by volunteers. Tens of thousands of hours per month in volunteer time keep TEFAP operating smoothly and effectively. Although the nutritional quality of TEFAP foods has improved, especially as dairy surpluses were depleted and purchased items began to be included, the program provides only supplemental foods and does not presume to deliver a complete diet. In most places, only several TEFAP items per month are distributed. However, TEFAP is particularly important as a food source for low-income persons who cannot or will not access other food assistance programs, such as food stamps. Since the federal law was changed in the mid-1980s to allow donated products to be shipped along with federal commodities, some states have aggressively pursued other donations to supplement TEFAP. For example, the California Department of Social Services’ "Donate, Don’t Dump" initiative annually collects and distributes tens of millions of pounds of fresh fruit in conjunction with TEFAP. In the current year, federal fiscal year 2006, TEFAP has received federal funding of $140 million for food purchases and $49.5 million for administration and distribution costs. Though supplies of surplus products is unpredictable and varies considerably from year to year, USDA expects to provide approximately $150 million worth of surplus commodities to TEFAP in fiscal year 2006. ___________ Foodlinks America is published 24 times a year by California Emergency Foodlink and distributed by Weinberg & Vauthier Consulting, 6412 CR 116, Burnet, Texas 78611; Zy Weinberg and Barbara Vauthier, Editors; email: bvauthier@tefapalliance.org. __________ 
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