COVID-19 Working Paper: Distribution and Examination of Coronavirus Food Assistance Program Payments and Forgivable Paycheck Protection Program Loans at the State Level in 2020

Government payments to the farm sector were a record-high $45.7 billion in calendar year 2020. COVID-related payments from two programs—USDA’s Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) at $23.5 billion and Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) at $6.0 billion—accounted for nearly two-thirds of those 2020 payments. This report analyzes the distribution of direct Government payments relative to cash receipts in calendar year 2020 using Lorenz curves and Gini coefficients. We find that USDA COVID-related payments from CFAP relative to cash receipts at the State level were closely aligned with distribution of cash receipts.