UN agency sending 1,000 tons of food to Iraq every hour

Every hour, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is delivering 1,000 tons of food to Iraq in what the agency today billed as the largest such operation in its 40-year history.

Last month, WFP delivered over three quarters of a million tons of food to the war-ravaged country as part of its $1.5 billion bid to feed the entire Iraqi population through October.

WFP Deputy Executive Director Jean-Jacques Graisse pointed out that even before the war, six out of every ten Iraqis relied on food rations as their only source of income. "It is very likely that the food aid is even more important today in this post-conflict period, since many people have lost their jobs and have not received salaries, while at the same time they are seeing prices rise," he said.

The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) is responsible for the security of warehouses and silos where food aid is being stored after passing through Turkey, Jordan, Syria, the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, Kuwait and Iran. Each month, the Iraqi Ministry of Trade is in charge of distributing 27 million food rations through a network of 44,000 food and flour agents across the country.