Ending Child Malnutrition with Ready-to-Use Foods: ECF Joins Edesia’s Global Food & Nutrition Security Roundtable

Last Friday, we had the opportunity to visit Edesia Nutrition ’s impressive Ready-to-Use Foods factory in Rhode Island, where we took part in a Global Food & Nutrition Security Roundtable with other impactful organizations working to eradicate malnutrition. This in-person private event, attended by key stakeholders and media, delved into the critical issue of child malnutrition, and focused on both treatment and prevention.

We toured Edesia's state-of-the-art factory, which produces 40,000 metric tons of supplementary and therapeutic foods annually, and met with some of Edesia’s staff members – many of whom have experienced life in refugee camps and relied on food aid. Edesia’s founder and CEO Navyn Salem welcomed the group, and Senator Jack Reed kicked off the event with remarks and applauded Edesia’s efforts to reach all children with life-saving treatments of medical foods like Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF). Representative Rosa L De Lauro and Representative Seth Magaziner shared recorded remarks, highlighting that the cost to treat children suffering from malnutrition worldwide would be an additional $950 million a year.

Our Managing Director, Kimberly Cernak , spoke as part of the roundtable alongside colleagues from 联合国儿童基金会 , USAID , ALIMA , Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) , IRC , WISHH (The World Initiative for Soy in Human Health) , and Natick Labs . She emphasized that the child malnutrition crisis is growing, even as we have the tools to fight it – such as RUTF, which is produced with ingredients grown right here in the U.S., including peanuts, dairy, and soy. “We’re all here today because we’ve had the heart-wrenching experience of looking into the eyes of a child suffering from malnutrition,” Cernak said. “And we won’t rest until we’ve brought treatments like RUTF to scale, and ended this long and intolerable crisis.”

A big thanks to our partners at Edesia for hosting this important conversation, and to all participants for contributing to the vital conversation. And thank you to Kyle House Group for facilitating the discussion.

Together, we can end malnutrition – and create a healthier future for children worldwide.