Under cover of emergency

An event planning company in San Antonio, Texas, known for throwing lavish weddings and high-end conferences, was awarded more than $39 million — one of the largest contracts handed out by USDA under a new program aimed at matching up food banks with surplus produce, meat and dairy.

Also on the list was a company that specializes in trade-related finance and one that sells health and wellness items for travelers.

[...]

The goal is to buy up a variety of excess perishable food items; pack them in easy-to-distribute boxes; and then provide the boxes to food banks and other nonprofits where people in need can pick them up.

But there are concerns about whether some of the companies awarded contracts can pull it off.

  Politico

"No experience necessary" is the Trump administration motto.

[N]umerous industry leaders were not on the list.

“It’s puzzling,” said Michael Muzyk, president of Baldor Specialty Foods, a distributor based in New York. Muzyk, who also serves as chairman of the United Fresh Produce Association, did not apply for a contract, saying he felt the program was ill-designed.

Can't imagine why he would think this administration would put out something "ill-designed".

The rollout of USDA’s fresh food buying initiative comes on the heels of intense political backlash over several large companies getting federal money through the Paycheck Protection Program run by the Small Business Administration.

It’s possible the Agriculture Department wanted to avoid similar criticism by primarily awarding the contracts to small businesses or lesser-known companies. However, some meat giants like Cargill ($7.3 million) and Tyson ($862,000) are on the list. USDA also awarded a huge, $147 million contract to Borden Dairy, a large Dallas-based dairy company that filed for bankruptcy in January.

Why do I get the feeling that a little digging would show people getting the contracts have a connection to the White House?

Other companies that are unfamiliar to those in the food industry have also raised eyebrows. Travel + Well Holdings LLC — a small company based 50 miles north of San Francisco that sells hand sanitizers, lotions and other wellness products in airports and online — was awarded $12 million to distribute fresh fruit and vegetable boxes in the Western region.

[...]

Questions have also been raised about companies on the list with virtually no public information available. For example, POLITICO was unable to identify B.E. Co Inc., which received an $800,000 contract to deliver fresh produce in the mid-Atlantic region.

[...]

When produce industry leaders saw the list of contracts issued Friday night, they were shocked to not recognize many of the names on the list.

Most of the most well-known companies in the business, from large national names like FreshPoint, a division of Sysco, to more regional companies like Keany Produce, based in Maryland, were left off.

Muzyk of Baldor Specialty Foods said it’s clear that some companies applied without understanding what’s really required to purchase, pack and distribute fresh food at the scale the program requires. It requires proper cold storage capacity and trucks as well as food safety practices, particularly for produce which is vulnerable to contamination.

“Under Covid, it’s 10 times more important that you are handling product safely,” he said.

Pshaw!

One of the questions raised by United Fresh and others is whether the businesses selected have what’s known as a PACA license — something USDA likens to a driver's license for operating a produce business. The requirement stems from a Depression-era law aimed at ensuring farmers and others get paid appropriately after they sell a perishable product.

While unknown to the general public, PACA is a huge deal in the produce sector. A company without a PACA license could have a difficult time finding buyers willing to sell it large volumes of produce for the boxes that are supposed to start going out to food banks soon.

Really, though, how long could it take to print up licenses?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.