College student starts Plumpynut Press to fight child malnutrition
William Lambers
July 30, 2010
Today, York is again home to writing and publishing about a major crisis: only this time it's global hunger. York resident Elizabeth Stoltz has started Plumpy'nut Press, a magazine dedicated to the plumpy'nut foods used to save the lives of malnourished children.
Stoltz, a student at Ithaca College, writes, "We can’t afford to continue to lose generations of children to preventable causes – it is time to change the world one tiny belly at a time. " Stoltz also has started a non-profit organization, Food for Thought, which has raised 15,000 dollars to purchase plumpy'nut for children in Ethiopia.
Action Against Hunger and other aid agencies have high praise for plumpy'nut. This food, which comes in a small packet, helps treat malnourished children and is easy to administer. No preparation or refrigeration is needed.
There is actually a family of foods under the plumpy'nut regime. Whatever a child's malnutrition level is determines which type of plumpy'nut food is required. The food treatment can be given at home. This cuts out costly hospitalization and provides psychological benefits for the patient and family. Action Against Hunger explains, " In the past, all treatment for acute malnutrition required prolonged hospitalization."
Plumpy'nut Press recently highlighted the company Edesia which produces plumpy'nut in their factory in Providence, Rhode Island. Edesia just supplied Haiti with supplementary plumpy distributed by the World Food Programme. They also donated to Action Against Hunger's program in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). They hope to raise enough money to send more food to the DRC.
See Plumpy'nut Press at http://plumpynutpress.wordpress.com/.
image courtesy of Edesia
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