Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan visited Road Runner Food Bank in Albuquerque, New Mexico today, where she took a tour of the facility and helped distribute USDA foods. Merrigan highlighted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and the ARRA funding that Road Runner received in 2009.
The Recovery Act supported the nation’s food banks, food pantries and soup kitchens, by increasing funding to USDA’s Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP).
TEFAP helps supplement the diets of low-income Americans by providing them with emergency food and nutrition assistance at no cost. USDA makes food available to State governments, which distributes it to their emergency feeding network and their affiliates, like Road Runner.
And Road Runner didn’t just receive food through the Recovery Act, it also received TEFAP Administrative Funds, which it quickly put to use renovating and installing racking in it’s cold storage facility. Because of these renovations, Road Runner is now able to store and distribute more foods to those in need.
More information about USDA's Recovery Act efforts is available at http://www.usda.gov/recovery. Log on to USDA’s YouTube channel to view additional ARRA project highlights, videos are available at http://www.youtube.com/usda - g/c/2A468F5AC6EBCED7