MIAMI _ Millions of Floridians could receive food boxes containing dairy, meat, produce _ and a letter signed by President Donald Trump _ this month as the latest round of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farmers to Families Food Box Program reaches the state.
Written in both English and Spanish, the letter boasts how the president has prioritized sending "nutritious food" to underserved families as a relief effort during the coronavirus pandemic.
Boxes from the program distributed in Miami-Dade, however, have found their way to Miami Beach residents who don't identify as underserved and saw the president's letter as an attempt to win their vote in November's election.
One resident, Matthew Killen, was surprised to find a box filled with a gallon of milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, a head of lettuce, apples and hot dogs at his door earlier this week. He hadn't ordered any groceries. At first, he thought it could be a kind gesture from a neighbor.
Then he noticed Trump's message.
"It just goes on bragging about how they've delivered 50 million of these to people," he said. "Why would someone receiving this really need to know this?"
(The White House and USDA now say over 100 million boxes have been delivered since May.)
Killen, who lives in a largely Hispanic neighborhood of Miami Beach, said he felt "targeted" by the Trump administration. "Like they're trying to win this area" for the upcoming election, he said.
In a Facebook post telling friends about the box, he encouraged them to vote for Joe Biden.
Trump's letter drew criticism from Democrats in Congress
Trump's letter has drawn similar criticism from Congressional members. In August, 49 Democratic representatives, including Florida's Al Lawson, who represents northern Florida, wrote to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and asked that he stop the letters immediately.
They argued that Trump's use of the federal food aid program to self-promote so close to the election is a violation of the federal Hatch Act, which prohibits employees of the executive branch from using their position to influence or interfere with an election.
The president and vice president are exempt from the restrictions of the Hatch Act; USDA employees are not.
"It's not political to distribute important information to underserved communities," a White House official wrote in an email to the Miami Herald.
Though the USDA program has been running since May, the department only began distributing the Trump-signed letters in July. And since the program is designed with a long distribution chain, it's unclear how one ended up at Killen's door.
The USDA provides the funds to purchase the food, but it doesn't handle delivery. Distributors that have received Farmers to Families contracts pack the boxes and organize on-the-ground drop-offs to community organizations. Those organizations are ultimately responsible for getting the food to people in need.
Freedom Fresh, the distributor that packaged Killen's food box, was awarded a nearly $6.8 million contract and is set to provide Feeding South Florida, a nonprofit that supplies hundreds of food pantries, about 300,000 boxes by October's end.
As part of its COVID-19 response, Feeding South Florida has distributed more than 87 million pounds of food in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Broward and Monroe counties.
"Our partners can deliver to a home," said Paco Velez, president and CEO of Feeding South Florida. Because the boxes are pre-packaged, the partners may not even realize a letter from the president is in them, he said.
"If they do ask about them, we have given them the option to pull them out if they so choose," Velez said.
The USDA-contracted distributors, however, do not have that option.
$82.5 million contract to DiMare Fresh
"We're just following the specifications that were given to us by USDA and, of course, the letter is part of it," said Tony DiMare, vice president and co-owner of DiMare Fresh, another USDA-contracted distributor for Florida.
DiMare Fresh is the Florida City-based tomato packing conglomerate run by Paul DiMare, his son Tony and other members of the DiMare family, according to Florida corporate records.
"Forget about what side of the aisle you're on," DiMare said in response to people upset by the letter. This administration started the program because farmers who were suffering from the onset of the pandemic, had to leave crops in the field unharvested because restaurants, airports and schools were shut down, he said.
The DiMares are big contributors to the Republican Party. From June 2019 to to July 2020, Paul DiMare or Paul J. DiMare of DiMare Homestead Inc. has contributed $46,235 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, the committee that works to elect Republicans to the U.S. House of Representatives, and another $3,625 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which works to elect Republicans to the U.S. Senate, according to federal election campaign contribution records.
Paul DiMare also donated $5,600 to Carlos Gimenez, the Miami-Dade County mayor trying to unseat the Democratic incumbent Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in the 26th Congressional District, and gave $5,600 to Donna Shalala, the Democratic incumbent of the 27th Congressional District, campaign contribution records show.
Tony DiMare said he is thankful for the USDA program, but said it hasn't come without challenges.
"With so many different products, from milk, to dairy products, to processed meats, to produce, temperature is very critical, because of the perishability," he said. "We've had to turn away a lot of potential recipients because of their inability to accommodate the perishable products that we're delivering."
In addition, some food banks and pantries aren't able to handle the 31- to 35-pound box, he said.
The USDA awarded DiMare Fresh an $82.5 million contract to distribute food boxes in Florida, Texas and Pennsylvania for round three of the program.
Another company, Sysco Corp., was awarded almost $114.5 million to distribute food boxes to Florida and at least 30 more states.
Question as to whether this violates federal law
When it comes to determining whether having a letter from the president in these boxes violates federal law, Jan Jacobowitz, director of the Professional Responsibility and Ethics Program at the University of Miami's School of Law, said it can get complicated.
"What we're talking about here is intent," she said. "It's very difficult in any area of the law to prove intent. You would have to have a lot more information about how the letter was composed, why it was made mandatory at this time."
Regardless, Killen doesn't think he should have received the food or the letter. The vacant apartments in his building shouldn't have either, he said.
His neighbor, Elaine Cordova, agrees.
"I know a lot of people that need it, and they haven't gotten any deliveries like that," she said.
