Reuters reports that the Farmers to Families Food Box programme is one of several government efforts that help struggling Americans. It aims to buy food from farmers who typically produced for restaurants but lost business because of coronavirus-related shutdowns, and deliver it to the millions of people who were thrown out of work or were otherwise hurt by the pandemic.

"Today I am proud to announce that we will provide an additional one billion dollars to fund the Farmers to Families Food Box programme," Trump said during a visit to a North Carolina food packing plant.

Reuters reported in July that the government had delivered far less food aid under the up to $3 billion programme announced in April than it had pledged by the end of June, citing food banks managers and data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The programme was criticised by food banks, analysts and some US senators, who said contracts were often awarded to inexperienced vendors that were unable to source the food and deliver it in a timely manner.

According to the USDA website, the department aims to complete the purchase of up to $2.7 billion of food under the aid programme by the end of August.

The White House said in a statement on Monday 24 August that under the programme, more than 70 million boxes of food had been delivered to food banks and non-profit organisations.

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