The federal government is spending 40-million dollars on chicken. They’re hoping the purchase will help stabilize prices.

The poultry will go to food pantries and meal delivery programs like Meals on Wheels. The USDA says it will help the poor as well as the farmers.

Prices and demand for chicken are down and so are exports. In the meantime corn prices have more than doubled in the last year. Mike Lacey is the head of Poultry Science at the University of Georgia.

“Sixty to seventy-percent of the cost of raising a chicken is the cost of feed. So, when feed prices rise dramatically as corn has in the past year that does impact their bottom line dramatically.”

Last year Georgia raised 1.4 billion chickens making it the largest brouler producer in the U.S.