Earlier this week, Edesia was one month away from considering shutting down its factory.
For years, the Rhode Island nonprofit has manufactured lifesaving peanut paste for starving children, working alongside a Georgia-based counterpart, Mana Nutrition, to ship that product across the world.
But over the last few months, the crumbling of the U.S. Agency for International Development — which funds much of their work — has meant contract cancellations, reversals of those cancellations, and delays for both companies, resulting in hundreds of thousands of boxes idling in their warehouses.
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About the author
Elissa Miolene
Elissa Miolene reports on USAID and the U.S. government at Devex. She previously covered education at The San Jose Mercury News, and has written for outlets like The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Washingtonian magazine, among others. Before shifting to journalism, Elissa led communications for humanitarian agencies in the United States, East Africa, and South Asia.
