The Trump administration has ordered 550 tons of emergency food aid—enough to feed 1.5 million malnourished children for a week—to be incinerated tomorrow rather than be distributed as part of its ongoing purge of USAID. The “high-energy biscuits,” intended for children under five living in war and disaster zones, are currently being stored in a warehouse in Dubai and were meant to be shipped out this year, but will instead go to waste due to cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effectively halting nearly all forms of foreign aid. Current and former aid workers, speaking anonymously for fear of retaliation, told The Atlantic that the sheer scale of waste is unprecedented. Despite repeated assurances from the administration not to eliminate food aid, U.S. warehouses around the world currently house 60,000 tons of food, including peas and cereal originally bound for famine-stricken Sudan, which the administration is now unable to deliver even if it wanted to after gutting USAID and firing logistical experts. According to The Atlantic, the amount of food set to be incinerated tomorrow would be enough to feed every single child currently starving in Gaza.
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