Empowering food security.

A nutritious, diverse diet has untold power in the life of a child. Food empowers children to learn in school, fuels their bodies to grow and develop, and reduces the risk of disease. ?

Food insecurity often acts as a barrier to these things. Horizon staff understand the importance of nutritious meals, especially for children who often come into our care undernourished and malnourished. All kitchen staff in our Micro Communities follow a plan to ensure children receive the nutrition they need.?

Walter, who facilitates the nutrition program in Kenya as a community director, says fish and chicken were the first anchors in the meal plan, as well as peanut butter. White bread and rice were swapped for their “brown” counterparts. ?

“The children don’t like a lot of the brown meals, but we have been educating them on their nutritional benefit,” Walter says. “We try to adjust to make them enjoy the meals. We would mix maize (corn) and sorghum so that it is not purely brown or white ugali.” Ugali is a dense?porridge made from maize flour, a staple in Kenyan diets.?

Food as Survival??

Switching to “browns,” as Walter calls them, was a challenge, as it would be for most kids accustomed to sweeter white carbohydrates. “Brown is healthy, but doesn’t always taste the best!” ?

We may laugh and smile with familiarity at the sentiment – perhaps many of our own children feel the same way. But we cannot miss the fact that all children have a right to access health and nutrition, regardless of?how it tastes. ?

In 2020, 1 in 3 people did not have access to adequate food. In Africa, 59.6% of people experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, compared to 40.9% of Latin America and the Caribbean (1). This crisis bleeds into every other area of life, stripping the basic rights from those who find themselves in impoverished circumstances. Restoring food rights to children prevents family separation due to a strain on resources. Many of the “orphans” we care for do indeed have family, but find themselves separated from them due to inadequate access to food (2).??

“Right now, a big percentage of Kenyan families strive to just have one meal per day, let alone a balanced diet,” Walter says. “It’s a hard thing to talk about, especially where these children came from.”??

Food as Empowerment?

Horizon measures empowerment by restoring children’s rights through our Child and Youth Empowerment Index: safety, health, nutrition, education, housing, economic and social capital. Two of the seven domains in this index are health and nutrition, which means providing meals to food-insecure children and families?is a program anchor. ?

We provide consistent, nutritionally diverse meals to more than 1,500 people across Kenya, Honduras and Guatemala: including children living onsite in our Micro Communities, employees, and children attending onsite schools. Children reunified with their families receive access to meal support as well – for themselves and their families, extending food security to the wider communities. ?

There’s no denying the positive affects children experience with a nutritionally diverse diet. Walter credits the children’s diets to a reduction in health-related problems and says cases of malnutrition are completely gone. Not only does a healthy diet combat these adversities, it also is the foundation for an energized, full life.???

Food security is empowerment, and you can be a part of it. provide meals to to children and youth today by donating on our website: https://empowertheorphaned.org/donate/?

Written by: Sarah Pryor, Nicole Scott, Dorice Lusuli

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SOURCES:

1. The State of food security and nutrition in the world. 2021. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations .
2. Poverty: a leading cause of the global orphan crisis. 2018. The Borgen Project.