3. The impact of food aid 

3.1 Immediate impact

In order to ascertain the impact of food aid at the house hold level, visits were made to a small village in Kalu Woreda, in a Kebele called Addis Alem. I interviewed three families in different socio-economic circumstances; poor, middle class and wealthy (by village standards), as well as the village leader and a female headed household to ask about their experiences with food aid.  

In times of drought or pest, the immediate impact of food aid is particularly evident. It serves the vital purpose of saving the lives of people who no longer have the ability to cope with the food shortages that occur. For vulnerable families; people who have little or no farm land, who have a very large family or a family headed by a lone female, food aid is the only way out of an immediate crisis and the only way to avert large scale mortality.  

Yimer Abdu Yimer, the 50-year-old father and head of a ‘poor’ household interviewed admitted: “We are reliant on relief food to get us though the lean times, every year. Since we are one of the poorest families of the village, we are usually included. Most years there is an opportunity to receive food through EGS.” 

Food aid, however, does not address the post-crisis needs of the most vulnerable families. Many families accumulate large debts before a crisis becomes acute. Food aid is often delivered with either a nutrition based cut-off point or through community targeting. When it stops, the poor family is often left with the debts, leaving them less capable of coping with the next food insecure period.