The United Nations' food agency announced on Tuesday they may not be able to meet their goal of helping three million people in Syria in July, according to the New York Times.
The World Food Program has only reached about 2.4 million people.
According to Elisabeth Byrs, the agency's senior public information officer, fighting increased in the areas of Damascus and Homs. As of Monday, the company has reached about 300,000 people in Homs this month. Other cities cannot be reached because of military operations.
"Dispatches of food are slower because of the situation right now," Byrs told the Times.
World Food Program operates seven warehouses and over a dozen distribution points in Syria. According to the group's website, a typical food basket contains rice, bulgur, wheat, sugar, pasta, vegetables, oil, and lentils. It provides families with a monthly serving of 11 pounds of bread per person.
According to Steve Taravella, senior spokesman for the food agency in Washington, many of the trucks have not been able to reach their destination. In June, eight trucks carrying more than 300 metrics of flour were attacked in Deir al-Zour, in northeast Syria. Only four trucks were able to distribute food. The program planned for the flour to be distributed to 13,600 families. Instead the agency could only be distributed to about 6,700 families.
According to the New York Times, on May 29, another armed group in the village of Tal Menes seized a truck carrying flour. The truck was headed to Aleppo.
"We won't know for a few weeks whether we will reach our goal," Mr. Taravella said. "But we announced the findings because we want the humanitarian community to understand the scope of the need."
International aid groups have had some difficulty delivering supplies to Syria since war began more than two years ago. Syrian Arab-Reb Crescent was the only organization able to deliver aid and provide medical care because President Bashar al-Assad blocked all other groups from forming operations.
Byrs told the Times it cost the agency $29.3 million to $30 million each week to finance aid operations. World Food Program is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger and is funded entirely voluntary donations.
