WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2004 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced that it is donating 5,430 metric tons of U.S. agricultural commodities to Mercy Corps, a private voluntary organization, for a food for education program in Eritrea.

The commodities include 2,800 tons of wheat, 2,500 tons of vegetable oil, 50 tons of nonfat dry milk and 80 tons of soy protein concentrate.

Mercy Corps will sell the wheat and most of the vegetable oil to the Eritrean Grain Board and use the remaining commodities for direct feeding. Proceeds from commodity sales will help fund program activities, including producing, packaging and distributing high-energy biscuits to 20,000 students in 50 primary schools. Proceeds will also be used to encourage rural girls to enroll in school, train parent-teacher associations in distributing the biscuits and supporting schools, and implement community-designed school improvements.

The donation will be made under the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, administered by the Foreign Agricultural Service. The McGovern-Dole program provides for USDA donations of agricultural commodities to promote education, child development and food security for some of the world’s poorest children. USDA provided 66,200 tons of U.S. commodities to 13 countries under fiscal year 2004 McGovern-Dole donation agreements.

For further information, contact Al Ersoz of FAS at (202) 720-3405, or by e-mail at Ersoz@fas.usda.gov.

FAS news releases are available on the Internet at http://www.fas.usda.gov.

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PR 0192-04