As part of recent successful efforts to encourage the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to expand efforts to provide more produce to food banks and affiliates nationwide, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski announced USD 20 million (EUR 14.7 million) will be used to purchase Alaska canned pink salmon for Americans.
Murkowski was the lead Republican on a bipartisan August letter with more 20 senators recommending more be done by the USDA in light of increased need across the country through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) — leading to last week’s USD 126 million (EUR 92.9 million) purchase of fruits and vegetables.
“When I initially encouraged Secretary Vilsack to consider using TEFAP funds to help provide healthy food for Americans in need, my goal was to ensure that food banks and their partners would have greater access to a wide variety of healthy foods,” said Murkowski.
“Every Alaskan knows that our salmon is brain food and full of protein, so I suggested the Department of Agriculture consider our nutritious and delicious salmon for food banks nationwide experiencing high levels of need.”
