NCLA submits the following letter urging the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to ease certain regulatory burdens associated with your implementation of the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) in light of serious health and safety concerns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

USDA and FNS have the ability to respond to the crisis by allowing safer and speedier distribution of food to the needy. The agencies must not insist on counterproductive and dangerous formalities in this emergency. Indeed, NCLA respectfully submits that FNS’s interpretations of the recordkeeping requirements are themselves unlawful and ERAs could bring meritorious court challenges to the agency’s determinations. NCLA therefore urges USDA and FNS to alter their response to the pandemic immediately so as to ensure that the intended beneficiaries of TEFAP may quickly and safely access the food resources they desperately need.

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