Washington had stopped purchases of commodities produced by US farmers for donation - despite a waiver for emergency food assistance - after US President Donald Trump paused all foreign aid for 90 days so contributions could be reviewed to see if they aligned with his "America First" foreign policy.
The US also told the World Food Program (WFP) to stop work on dozens of US-funded grants, orders that were received five days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued the food waiver.
"We can confirm that the recent pause concerning in-kind food assistance to WFP - purchased from US farmers with Title II funds - has been rescinded," the organisation said in an X post on Sunday. "
This allows for the resumption of food purchases and deliveries under existing USAID agreements."
Several of the suspended grants were under the Food for Peace Title II program, which spends about $2 billion annually on the donation of US commodities. The program, which makes up the bulk of US international food assistance, is co-administered by the US Department of Agriculture and the US Agency for International Development.
The USAID grants that WFP was told to stop work on are worth tens of millions of dollars and provide food aid in impoverished countries including Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Haiti and Mali.
A lack of detail in the Trump administration's effort to slash and reshape US foreign aid has created chaos and confusion, say humanitarian officials, who have been left to work out whether to take the financial risk of continuing programs without assurance that they are covered by a waiver.
The Office of Inspector General for USAID said in a report released on Monday that "uncertainty put more than $489 million of food assistance at ports, in transit, and in warehouses at risk of spoilage, unanticipated storage needs, and diversion."
The report by the auditor said USAID staff had identified more than 500,000 metric tons of food currently at sea or ready to be shipped that had been sourced under the Title II program.
"Because this funding source was not included under the Secretary's emergency food assistance waiver, these commodities were held in limbo, subjecting them to spoilage, unanticipated storage needs, and potential diversion," the report said.
The inspector general also said USAID had lost almost all ability to track $8.2 billion in unspent aid after the foreign funding freeze and idling of staff.
The new administration's rapid dismantling of USAID left oversight of the humanitarian aid "largely nonoperational," the office said.
That includes the agency's greatly reduced ability to ensure no aid falls into the hands of violent extremist groups or goes astray in conflict zones, the watchdog said.
A court has temporarily blocked a Trump administration order that would have pulled all but a fraction of workers off the job worldwide.
Scores of USAID staffers who showed up for work at its Washington headquarters on Monday were turned away after the Trump administration said it stripped the agency off the lease of the building, which it had occupied for decades.
Staff were denied entry to their offices to retrieve belongings and were told the lease had been turned over to the General Services Administration, which manages federal government buildings.
