USDA Signs Agreement with Russia

September 11, 2000

USDA signed a fiscal year 2000 Food for Progress agreement last week with Action Contre La Faim (ACLF), a private voluntary organization, for the donation of U.S. agricultural commodities in Russia. The agreement will provide approximately 2,620 metric tons of wheat flour, rice, buckwheat, and vegetable oil.

ACLF plans to distribute the donated commodities to approximately 173,000 of the most vulnerable individuals living in the Sakhalin region of the Russian Far East. During its 12-month direct distribution program, ACLF will target isolated elderly persons, children under the age of 16 who are members of large or single-parent families with three or more children, and invalids. Some of these recipients will be serviced through assistance provided to institutions.

This donation is part of the larger FY 2000 U.S. humanitarian food assistance program offered to Russia late last year. For further information, contact Delphine Hamlin of FAS at (202) 720-5319, or send a message via the Internet to Hamlin@fas.usda.gov.