If Progress Were a Food…
If “progress” were a food, when you’re a child, it would nourish and advance your life; when you order it, it would be globally accessible; and when you’re in a poor community, it would be locally sustainable. Although the concept of progress cannot exactly be transformed into a food (in the physical sense); nevertheless, Ready to Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTFs) are the edible embodiment of progress.
It Would Nourish and Advance Lives.
RUTFs are high in calorie and made from a peanut butter-like paste. Peanuts contain mono-unsaturated fats that are easily digestible and rich in zinc and protein. Zinc and protein both boost the body’s immune system to fight diseases. In many countries, child malnutrition (aka severe acute malnutrition) is a serious challenge because it worsens diseases such as HIV and malaria. Consider that 10.9 million children under the age of five die in developing countries each year, and malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause 60 percent of the deaths.(Source: The State of the World’s Children, UNICEF, 2007).
It Would Be Globally Accessible.
RUTFs move malnutrition treatment beyond a facility-based approach and into a home-administered method, and this widens the treatment’s effectiveness and impact. A home-based approach is critical because in many developing countries, hospitals and clinics are tens of miles away from certain local communities and transportation is not fluid. So RUTFs make it possible for a mother to care for her child at home with a nutrient-rich mixture instead of transporting her child to a far-away facility to stand in line for food imported from abroad.
It Would Be Locally Sustainable.
RUTFs are made with ingredients that come from local farmers. In effect, the local community takes some ownership of a solution geared towards better nutrition for the community. As a result of such local ownership, the solution is much more sustainable. For more information, visit Project Peanut Butter.
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