On April 17, 2020, President Trump announced the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP), designed to provide funding to partner with regional and local distributors to purchase fresh produce, dairy, and meat products and to provide direct support to agricultural producers where prices and market supply chains have been impacted and to assist producers with additional adjustment and marketing costs resulting from lost demand and short-term oversupply for the 2020 marketing year caused by COVID-19.

On May 19, 2020, the USDA released details of the direct support programs.  The Texas A&M Agricultural and Food Policy Center published a great guide to help explain who qualifies for this direct support program and how to calculate the payment.  To view that document, click here.  Drs. Fischer, Outlaw, Anderson and Benavidez did a great job with this publication and I’ve used it with my own family to analyze our operation.

Sign up for the CFAP program will be from May 26 – August 28, 2020 at local Farm Service Agency offices.