In a post in the Center for Global Development’s (CGD) “Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance” blog, senior fellow Kimberly Ann Elliott and research assistant Will McKitterick examine the U.S. Food for Peace program and proposed changes to the food aid program in light of the humanitarian situation in the typhoon-stricken Philippines. Because the typhoon hit at the beginning of the U.S. government’s fiscal year, money was available in the program to help, they note. “Had the typhoon struck a few months earlier, however, cash for such crises would have been exhausted by relief operations in Syria,” they write, examining proposed changes to the program that they say “could allow food aid to reach as many as 10 million more needy people without increasing the budget.” They conclude, “The evidence on the value of food aid reform keeps growing, as does the momentum behind it. Something good could come of the tragedy in the Philippines if it gives reform that final push to the top of the hill” (11/15).