A Rhode Island nonprofit that manufactures lifesaving peanut paste called Plumpy’Nut to feed severely malnourished children has 123,188 boxes of the product sitting in its warehouse. Down in Georgia, another company that produces a similar paste has around 300,000 boxes sitting on its dock. The boxes, which are meant to go to countries including Sudan and Somalia, have been stuck there since February.
The U.S. Agency for International Development, once the world’s biggest development agency and food aid donor, funded half of the world’s supply of these fortified pastes, known as ready-to-use therapeutic food, or RUTFs. Much of it was produced by these two U.S.-based companies.
Each box constitutes treatment for at least one child, says Mark Moore, co-founder and CEO of Mana Nutrition, the Georgia nonprofit.
About the author
Jesse Chase-Lubitz
Jesse Chase-Lubitz covers climate change and multilateral development banks for Devex. She previously worked at Nature Magazine, where she received a Pulitzer grant for an investigation into land reclamation. She has written for outlets such as Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and The Japan Times, among others. Jesse holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics.
