Thursday , March 28 2024
If every corporation followed Edesia's lead and made a donation (whatever they can) to buy some plumpy'nut, millions of children's lives would be saved.

Help Rhode Island Company Save Children From Deadly Malnutrition

Rhode Island-based Edesia just donated 1,100 boxes of plumpy’nut food to treat malnourished children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The charity Action Against Hunger will distribute this food, which will save many children from deadly malnutrition. Still more food is needed to meet the hunger emergency in the DRC.

Edesia is a non-profit organization in Providence that produces plumpy’nut and other specially enhanced nutritional foods for children. Because donations are not easy for them to obtain, they need the support of citizens and companies in order to provide more life-saving food for children.

Millions of small children in Niger, DRC, Yemen, Guatemala, Sudan, Chad and many more countries are at risk of dying from malnutrition. Or if they manage to survive, they suffer lasting physical or mental damage, unless we do something about it.

Marie Wisecup of Edesia explains that it takes just “$1.00 a day for treatment of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) with Plumpy’nut. When children suffer from SAM they are very sick. It is not simply a matter of meeting their food needs but rebuilding their body’s essential fat, protein and multivitamin stores. That is what Plumpy’nut accomplishes.”

If every corporation in the United States followed Edesia’s lead and made a donation to buy some plumpy’nut, millions of children’s lives would be saved. This would mark a tremendous achievement in America’s food for peace tradition.

It was 50 years ago today that President Dwight Eisenhower, on vacation in Newport, Rhode Island, made public a report on America’s new Food for Peace program. School lunch programs for war-recovering Italy and Japan, flood relief for Austria and a massive food reserve for India are just a few of the examples of the early years of Food for Peace.

Food for Peace, an extension of the World War II relief effort that saved millions from starvation, was a great chapter in American history. And it’s still being written with the likes of Edesia and others dedicated to fighting hunger.

The greatest chapter in America’s food for peace history could be etched if  people, businesses and groups came together to lead a global effort to ensure no child suffers from hunger and malnutrition.

You can donate to Edesia using Paypal at their web site.

About William Lambers

William Lambers is the author of several books including Ending World Hunger: School Lunches for Kids Around the World. This book features over 50 interviews with officials from the UN World Food Programme and other charities discussing school feeding programs that fight child hunger. He is also the author of Nuclear Weapons, The Road to Peace: From the Disarming of the Great Lakes to the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Open Skies for Peace, The Spirit of the Marshall Plan: Taking Action Against World Hunger, School Lunches for Kids Around the World, The Roadmap to End Global Hunger, From War to Peace and the Battle of Britain. He is also a writer for the History News Service. His articles have been published by newspapers including the Cincinnati Enquirer, Des Moines Register, the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Buffalo News, San Diego Union Tribune, the Providence Journal, Free Lance-Star (VA), the Bakersfield Californian, the Washington Post, Miami Herald (FL), Chicago Sun-Times, the Patriot Ledger (MA), Charleston Sunday Gazette Mail (WV), the Cincinnati Post, Salt Lake Tribune (UT), North Adams Transcript (MA), Wichita Eagle (KS), Monterey Herald (CA), Athens Banner-Herald (GA) and the Duluth News Journal. His articles also appear on History News Network (HNN) and Think Africa Press. Mr. Lambers is a graduate of the College of Mount St. Joseph in Ohio with degrees in Liberal Arts (BA) and Organizational Leadership (MS). He is also a member of the Feeding America Blogger Council.

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