The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP)
The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) is a federal program that helps improve the diets of low-income Americans, regardless of age, by providing them with emergency food and nutrition assistance at no cost. TEFAP plays a vital role in providing food assistance by supplementing other donated foods distributed by the emergency feeding organizations.
Under TEFAP, commodity foods are made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to the states. The states provide the food to eligible recipient agencies that they have selected and which in turn distribute it to the needy through the local emergency feeding organizations (EFOs). These EFOs may include:
1. Food Banks - Provide donated food to other organizations like food pantries, soup kitchens, hunger relief centers, or other food or feeding centers. While some food banks may also operate a food pantry, most food banks do not issue food directly to individuals.
2. Food Pantries - Distribute food to low-income and unemployed households for home consumption.
3. Soup Kitchens and Other Feeding Sites - Provide meals to the needy and the homeless on a regular basis.
Florida TEFAP
In Florida, the Recipient Agencies are selected by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, every four years, as a result of a competitive procurement process or bid. Those Recipient Agencies awarded a contract receive and are responsible for the distribution of all the TEFAP commodities in the county or counties awarded to them.
TEFAP commodities are provided to each of the state-contracted Recipient Agencies according to the counties they serve. Each county’s share is determined using a formula that bases the allocation on each county’s relative share of the State’s total number of persons with incomes below the poverty line and the total number of unemployed persons. This formula, which is similar to the one used by the federal government to allocate resources to the states, is adjusted annually.
To be eligible to receive commodities, an organization must be: (1) public or, if private, must possess tax exempt status pursuant to the Internal Revenue Code (if does not have a letter of tax exemption from the Internal Revenue Service, must be automatically tax exempt as “organized or operated exclusively for religious purposes” under the IRC); (2) is not a penal institution; and (3) provides food assistance exclusively to needy persons for household consumption or predominantly to needy persons in the form of prepared meals.
The state-contracted Recipient Agencies provide TEFAP commodities and other donated foods to the local food pantries, soup kitchens and other food or feeding organizations for distribution to eligible individuals. Organizations interested in distributing TEFAP commodities in addition to other donated foods must enter into a written agreement with the Recipient Agency contracted to serve that county. For information on the availability and criteria for distributing donated foods and to locate the state-contracted Recipient Agency for a particular county, go to “Locate Food Banks by County for Info on TEFAP Commodities”, at the link below.
Eligibility Requirements for Households
To be eligible to receive TEFAP commodities to take home, households must (1) participate in another government program such as Food Stamps, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medicaid, or reside in public housing; or (2) meet established income requirements. (“Income” means gross income before any deductions, expenses, etc., and includes, but is not limited to: wages, salaries, Social Security, public assistance or welfare payments, unemployment compensation, pensions, etc.) There is no means test for participation in a soup kitchen as it is presumed that anyone seeking a meal is needy.
To determine if you are eligible to receive TEFAP commodities or to locate a food pantry, soup kitchen or other emergency feeding organization in your area, contact the state-contracted Recipient Agency serving your county by going to “Locate Food Banks by County for Info on TEFAP Commodities” listed below.
