US set to destroy 550 tons of USAID food meant to go to malnourished kids

This story originally appeared in Truthout on July 16, 2025. It is shared here with permission.

The Trump administration is planning to destroy 550 tons of emergency food relief intended for children in impoverished and war-torn regions.

The food assistance that was part of the now-defunct USAID program is set to be incinerated on Thursday, The Atlantic reported, citing sources with knowledge of the government’s plans.

The food comes in the form of high-energy biscuits that are packed with nutritious substances helpful to kids 5 years of age and under. The biscuits are currently being stored in Dubai and were meant to be sent to war- and disaster-ravaged areas. This particular shipment of food was set to go to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The food set for destruction could feed 1.5 million children for a full week. It could easily feed the entire population of children currently starving in Gaza, for example.

According to The Atlantic’s Hana Kiros, the biscuits “are a stopgap measure, often used in scenarios where people have lost their homes in a natural disaster or fled a war faster than aid groups could set up a kitchen to receive them.”

There are various other U.S.-owned warehouses across the globe that are currently storing at least 60,000 tons of food. However, due to the dismantling of USAID, there is no feasible way for the food to be transferred to the countries it was intended for.

The Trump administration announced its intention to end the USAID program in early January, with Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cohorts making the cuts. Musk baselessly derided the decades-old program as a “criminal organization.”

The program was officially shuttered on July 1. Former USAID officials and humanitarian experts have warned that termination of the program would leave 1 million children facing malnutrition without treatment.

The end of USAID will also likely result in around 200,000 children becoming paralyzed in some manner, as the program distributed polio vaccines. Around 160,000 could also die from malaria because of the program ending.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) blasted the Trump administration for opting to destroy the food rather than give it to children who are starving.

“If the U.S. has ALREADY purchased specialty foods to keep kids from starving to death, should we deliver that food to dying kids or allow it to spoil, and destroy it?” Kaine wrote on Bluesky. “It’s a simple question, but the Trump Administration can’t answer it. Disgusting.”