by Latawnya Dia, FSA public affairs specialist
The Farm Service Agency is on a mission to save people from hunger and stop the death of millions of children due to malnutrition.
"The U.S. is the world’s largest food aid donor and FSA is often called upon to quickly procure and coordinate food aid deliveries for emergency situations,” says Jim Monahan, FSA deputy administrator for commodity operations.
With more than 800 million people worldwide suffering from hunger and more than 3.5 million children under the age of five dying of malnutrition, the agency is continuing to work with organizations and purchase food in the form of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTFs) to meet short-term hunger and long-term development needs in the United States, Africa and other countries.
RUTFs are a nutritional peanut-based paste manufactured under the name Plumpy’nut®. The product is a prepackaged and full of calories and nutrients enriched with vitamins and minerals, sugar, vegetable fat and skimmed milk powder.
“We [FSA] are the number one agency that buys commodities to fill the need for hunger relief,” said Monahan. “We partner with various organizations to ensure those in dire need get the food aid they need at the time they need it.”
UNICEF estimates that in Africa alone, severely malnourished children will require as much as 140,000 metric tons of RUTF’s annually. Yet only 30,000 metric tons are manufactured annually.
To date, FSA has purchased more than 900 metric tons of RUTFs worth nearly $4.5 million and with the help of food aid organizations like Mother Administered Nutritional Aid (MANA), Tabatchnick and Edesia, the agency has been able to feed millions of people in Haiti after the earthquake in 2010 and more recently in the Horn of Africa to alleviate the effects of a long-term famine and drought.
“Oftentimes we see the pictures of starving families and children on television and it pulls at your heart strings because you want to help,” said Monahan. “At FSA we are given that opportunity and it is making a difference.”
