US to destroy 500 tons of emergency food as aid freeze stalls global relief efforts

After months of stalled approvals under the Trump administration’s foreign aid freeze, nearly 500 metric tons of high-energy biscuits purchased by the US government for humanitarian relief are now set to be incinerated.

The biscuits, bought during the Biden administration for $800,000, were meant to feed children in crisis zones such as Afghanistan and Pakistan. But according to multiple current and former US aid officials, the food has been sitting in a warehouse in Dubai, nearing expiration. The shipment could have fed more than 1.5 million children for a week.

Sources told The Atlantic and confirmed by Reuters that USAID staff repeatedly requested permission from new political appointees to distribute the food before its nutritional value declined. But with USAID now absorbed into the State Department and approval authority resting with inexperienced appointees, those requests were either ignored or lost in bureaucratic limbo.


Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified before Congress in May that “no food aid would go to waste.” But internal documents reviewed by The Atlantic show that by that time, the order to destroy the food had already been issued. The incineration will cost taxpayers an additional $130,000.

The Dubai stockpile is just a fraction of what’s being left unused. Over 66,000 tons of emergency food aid, purchased and warehoused across Djibouti, South Africa, Houston, and Dubai, is now at risk of expiring, according to Reuters. Aid groups say the freeze is already having fatal consequences. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, six children died in recent weeks after Action Against Hunger shut down programs due to a lack of US funding.

Food companies say they’ve also been left in the dark. The US manufacturers of ready-to-use therapeutic food like Plumpy’Nut say they haven’t received orders for months. “It’s sitting in our warehouses,” said Navyn Salem, CEO of Edesia.

Despite Rubio’s assurances, the State Department has not explained why aid wasn’t redirected to other regions such as Sudan or Gaza.