Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
No Food Delivered By Inexperienced Company Awarded Millions To Distribute Boxes To Hungry Americans
Politico: 'I Need The Food': Ag Department Food Box Program Beset By Delays
An event-planning company that received one of the largest federal contracts to provide produce, meat and dairy to hungry families has yet to deliver the much-needed boxes to food banks across the Southwest. The delay has stoked concerns about the Agriculture Department’s new $3 billion “Farmers to Families Food Box Program” — especially surrounding multimillion-dollar contracts awarded to several small firms with little experience in food distribution. (Bottemiller Evich and McCrimmon, 5/27)
The Oklahoman: Coronavirus In Oklahoma: Food Bank Assisting Those Who Test For COVID-19
The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma announced Wednesday that it has partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide emergency food boxes to individuals who test for COVID-19 at health departments in 28 Oklahoma counties. The food bank, through the department's disaster household distributions, is providing boxes full of non-perishable food to those who test and state they are food insecure. (Willert, 5/28)
The New York Times: As Meatpacking Plants Look To Reopen, Some Families Are Wary
On April 28, J. finished his shift at the Smithfield meat-processing plant in Crete, Neb., and drove to the local mobile testing site. (Worried about upsetting his employer, J. asked that we not use his name.) Two weeks earlier, he says, one of his co-workers tested positive for the coronavirus; not long after that, the person who worked directly next to him on the line had, too, so his daughter made an appointment for him to be tested. After having his nasal canal swabbed, J. went home to quarantine until further notice, using his two-week paid sick leave to do so. He wore a mask around the house and used his own set of dishes to protect his family from potential infection. As long as he didn’t develop any symptoms over those two weeks, he would be expected back at work. (Hughes, 5/27)
