By Marge Vance • Posted March 27, 2025

The recent drastic pause in payments for some $60 billion of United States international aid is having a catastrophic impact on people in 130 countries served by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Organizations such as Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. Bishops’ official overseas aid agency, say they have “had to halt much of our U.S. government-supported work due to the lack of payments: food in warehouses could not be distributed to the hungry, and women and children could not get vital health and nutrition services,” according to a CRS statement March 17.

The closing of “dozens of CRS’ life-saving projects,” the statement read, “will permanently cut off critical aid to more than 20 million people worldwide.”

Since 90% of staff positions have been terminated, some 80,000 tons of food aid cannot be delivered and risks rotting in warehouses, according to a February USAID report. An additional 500,000 tons of food currently en route or ready to transport from the U.S. faces a similar risk.

The cessation of food aid comes at a time when southern Africa is experiencing a severe drought causing food insecurity for 27 million people plus 21 million children suffering malnutrition, according to the World Food Programme.

We may think these problems don’t affect us in the United States, but 41% of U.S. international  food assistance comes from American farmers, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service. They also will suffer because of the dismantling of USAID.

These are just a few examples of the devastation being caused by these actions.

Many Americans don’t realize that U.S. foreign aid makes up only 1.2% of the federal budget that, in 2023, totaled $6.1 trillion, according to the Pew Research Center. The loss of this small amount of humanitarian aid in the federal budget, however, can mean the difference between life and death for so many who are struggling to survive.

The legality of these draconian cuts is for the courts to decide. The morality is for us citizens to decide!

Let us contact our elected representatives and request that they urge a reversal on the pause on all life-saving and life-affirming programs, and to issue all payments in a timely manner.

Hunger is not a partisan issue!

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Marge Vance serves as the Chapter Leader for the Catholic Relief Services Philadelphia-area chapter.