Production
surpluses aggravated unemployment and lack of consumer buying
power.
1933
Federal
Surplus Relief Corporation (FSRC), a non-profit, non-capital
corporation, formed to dispense commodities.
1935
FSRC changed
to Food Surplus Commodities Corporation (FSCC) whose focus was
on encouraging domestic consumption of surpluses rather than on
unemployment. Funding through Section 32 of P.L. 74-320
(Agricultural Adjustment Act) established to encourage
agricultural exports, domestic consumption of agricultural
commodities, and reestablishment of farmers' purchasing power.
1937
Commodities
purchased for FSCC using Section 32 funds allowed to be donated
for relief purposes (P.L. 75-165).
1938
FSCC
distributing $54 million worth of food a year.
1939
Secretary of
Agriculture cites problems with the commodity distribution
program.
May 16:
Experimental FSP began in Rochester, N.Y. Program expanded to
1,741 counties and 88 cities by August 1942. Four million people
participating by May 1943. Participants spent an amount of money
representing estimated normal food expenditures, for orange
stamps and were given blue stamps, without cost, to buy
designated surplus foods at retail establishments.
1941
May:
Nutrition Council for Defense recommended extending FSP,
justifying it as a "vital cog" in the National Defense Plan.
1943
March:
Although half of the counties in the U.S. had a FSP, scandal and
rumors of fraud and abuse, together with lower participation
than in the direct distribution program, pressure from organized
producers who insisted that their products be on the surplus
list even if they were not to participants' advantage,
decentralized administration with four administrators
interpreting policy differently, and the fact that the program
was never authorized by Congress, led to the demise of the
program. Scarcity of surplus commodities also played a part in
termination of the program in the Spring of 1943.
