New Deal Accomplishment: Over 4 million tons of food distributed to millions of Americans in need

Above: Federal surplus commodities being delivered to residents of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, in June 1941. Photo by Edwin Rosskam, Farm Security Administration, courtesy of the Library of Congress.

4 Million+ Tons of Food

The New Deal set up the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation (FSRC) in 1933 to purchase excess farm products (food, livestock, and goods) and then distribute them at no cost to low-income Americans. At the time, farms across the nation were producing too much and driving costs down to the point where many farmers couldn't make a living. Buying excess, and then distributing it to those in need--people who weren't able to purchase much from the private sector and, in many cases, suffering from malnutrition--solved two problems simultaneously. In 1935, the FSRC was renamed "Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation" (FSCC), and then the FSCC was merged into the "Surplus Market Administration" (SMA) in June 1940. (See the Living New Deal's summary of the FSCC.)

Using the annual reports of these agencies--FY 1938, pp. 18-19 (summarizing 1933-1938); FY, 1939, p. 11; FY 1940, p. 8; and 1941, p. 22--we see that the New Deal purchased from farmers, and then distributed to millions of Americans in need, over 4 million tons of food (or, 8 billion pounds). And this is a very conservative estimate, because I have not included many items that are hard to calculate the weight of, for example, 2,558,695 cases of grapefruit (1938 report, p. 18). Additionally, the 4 million tons does not include food distributed to schools for their lunch programs or foods purchased via the FSCC's "Food Stamp Plan" (initiated in 1939). In other words, the New Deal's overall food initiative greatly exceeded 4 million tons.

Foods purchased and distributed by the New Deal included fresh apples, butter, cheese, eggs, fish, milk, onions, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, prunes, and smoked pork.

The purchase and free distribution of excess food is one of the New Deal's greatest uses of the "General Welfare" sections of the U.S. Constitution (Preamble and Article I, Section 8).