USDA’s temporary Farmers to Families Food Box program will end after its expiration at the end of May when the funding will sunset for the food response program crafted immediately following the pandemic’s onset in the spring of 2020. Through the program, USDA contractors delivered 157,152,030 of fresh produce, milk, dairy and cooked meats through the food boxes. The agency spent $4 billion on the food box program in 2020. “The food box program was designed and implemented as a temporary effort to respond to market disruption caused by a global pandemic. While it did help respond to severe market disruption caused by the collapse of food service in the early stages of the pandemic, it had a number of significant challenges along the way,” according to a USDA spokesperson.