Tim Kaine Questions State Dept. Official on Burning Aid Food Meant for Starving Children

Burning of Aid Food

• 💡 Tim Kaine introduced an article detailing how US aid food, meant to supply 3.5 million people for a month, was mouldering in warehouses due to US aid cuts.
• 📌 Nearly 500 tons of high-energy biscuits, enough to feed 27,000 malnourished children for a month, were set to expire in July and were likely to be destroyed or turned into animal feed.
• ⚠️ The Atlantic reported that the US had decided to incinerate this nutritious food rather than allow starving children to have it.

State Department Response

• 🎯 Deputy Secretary of State Michael Rigas stated he would have to look into the particular issue of how the food stuffs got there.
• ❓ When pressed, Rigas confirmed that the government's policy is not to distribute expired food or medicine.
• 🤷 Rigas admitted he did not have a good answer as to why the State Department decided to burn the food rather than distribute it, stating he was as distressed about it as Senator Kaine.

Ethical and Practical Concerns

• 🤔 Kaine proposed that it is better for food to be distributed to starving children rather than incinerated, a statement Rigas completely agreed with.
• 🧐 Kaine questioned if the situation was due to incompetence or cruelty, especially since aid organizations had requested access to the food months prior.
• 🗣️ Kaine invoked Martin Luther King Jr., questioning what he would say about a nation that purchased food for starving kids and then let it expire and incinerated it.
• 🇺🇸 Rigas countered that the US is still the biggest giver of aid anywhere in the world.
• 💔 Kaine concluded that a government put on notice about resources that could save 27,000 starving children, and which then decides to keep the warehouse locked and let the food burn, exposes the soul of this endeavor.
• 🔍 Rigas stated he wanted to find out what happened and get to the ground truth, while also noting that he doesn't always take everything reported in the media as 100% factual.