government cheese (U.S.)

food program, United States

Also known as: surplus cheese, welfare cheese

Written by

Jordana Rosenfeld

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

History

government cheese (U.S.), commodity cheese stored by the U.S. government to regulate the price of dairy that was distributed in the 1980s to food-aid recipients and nonprofit organizations. Government cheese has been described as an orange substance that is similar to cheddar in texture but with a more processed taste, like Velveeta. In 1949 Congress authorized the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), a U.S. government corporation created in 1933 to stabilize farm prices, to purchase dairy...