Tag Archives: Hunger

Ava Anderson Non-Toxic Partners With Edesia Global Nutrition Solutions

Ava Anderson Non-Toxic Partners With Edesia Global Nutrition Solutions

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Two Rhode Island companies, founded and run by women, have come together this month to double the opportunity for positive impact.

Ava Anderson and Edesia were both boldly founded in Rhode Island in 2009, when the state was in the midst of the great recession that had enveloped the entire country. Both were founded by women on a mission to bring about change, and as a credit to the power of storytelling in the media, both were inspired by a news story they saw on TV.  For Navyn it was Anderson Cooper reporting on a “miracle” treatment for malnutrition called Plumpy’Nut .  For Ava it was a program about the toxins found in everyday cosmetic products that were dangerous to women’s health.

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Ava Anderson

Unable to find any products on the market truly toxin free Ava set about creating her own line of safe non-toxic beauty, and home care products.

Navyn Salem

Navyn Salem

By establishing the non-profit Edesia in 2009 and producing Plumpy’Nut in her home state, Navyn both provided local jobs, and global nutrition solutions all at once.

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Both companies have grown exponentially since they launched five years ago.

For the month of November each order of Ava Anderson products will provide a packet of Plumpy’Nut to a child in need.

Typically within 7-week course of Plumpy’Nut a child suffering from severe acute malnutrition can be brought back to a healthy weight. Proper nutrition is especially critical in small children whose brains and bodies are growing rapidly, and lack of nutrition can cause a condition called stunting from which they will never reach their full cognitive potential.

This partnership offers a great opportunity to purchase safe, toxin free products for yourself and your loved ones, while knowing that at the same time you will also be contributing towards the treatment of a child’s health. Plus for each order made through this link using the party ID # 4418 4 you will be entered to win a $25.00 Ava Anderson gift certificate! You can help us to #NourishTheFuture with these gifts that give back this month.

Please feel free to share this post and inspire others to shop Ava in November for maximum impact.

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#March4Nutrition: The Critical Role of Nutrition From Pregnancy To The Age of Two

#March4Nutrition: The Critical Role of Nutrition From Pregnancy To The Age of Two

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Searching for food pantry donations to add to my shopping cart, I realized that as much as some of the the food I’d choose would fill bellies, it might not provide much actual nutrition. I had to switch modes from trying to find pantry items with shelf life, to pantry items with nutritious value.  Hunger and nutrition go hand in hand, but are really two separate elements of the same problem. Nutrition has been found to be especially critical during the period through pre-natal care up to a child’s second birthday when human development is most rapid.  

March is  National Nutrition Month, and the 1,000 Days Partnership organized an online #March4Nutrition to raise awareness about the critical role of nutrition in the 1,000 day window from a woman’s pregnancy to the child’s second birthday.  Healthy mothers have healthy babies, who in turn grow up to be healthy mothers who have healthy babies themselves.  The impact of good nutrition early in life can not be stressed enough. Good nutrition has long reaching positive impact that carries through into the child’s future.  When a children grow up to lead healthy and productive lives, families,  communities, and ultimately countries are positively impacted, and can break the cycle of poverty.

Leading scientists, economists and health experts agree that improving nutrition during the critical 1,000 day window is one of the best investments we can make to achieve lasting progress in global health and development.-www.Thousanddays.org

This months campaign broke down the 1,000 day period into stages, highlighting important aspects at each point.

  • Pre-Pregnancy to Birth: During pregnancy not getting proper nutrition can have a detrimental effect on the healthy growth and development of the child.  This increases the risk of death as  a newborn and make the baby more likely to suffer from cognitive delays or physical defects, and possibly chronic health problems later in life.
  • Infancy, Birth To Six Months: Great emphasis is put on the importance of breastfeeding during this time period, and the need to support mothers to do so. According to The World Health Organization breast milk, which is readily available and affordable, is the ideal food for a newborn. It provides both nutrients and antibodies that can help protect infants from common illnesses.
  • Toddlerhood, Six months To Two Years Old: At this stage continuing breastfeeding if possible, and adding in nutritious foods, plenty of water, and maintaining good hygiene can have life long health benefits.

Malnutrition is a global issue, and the leading cause of death of young children throughout the world. It happens here too, according to my local food bank 1 in 3 customers they serve will be children.  Having learned what I did this month throughout the #March4Nutrition, as I finished my shopping the other day I was sure to add in protein like Peanut butter, tuna fish, and beans. I chose whole grain products and canned fruits, and vegetables. Although I’m aware it is just a drop in the bucket, I believe every child deserves a chance to grow to their full potential. Raising awareness and donating what I can is how I can put my beliefs into action.

 Learn more by following the #March4Nutrition hashtag with @The1,000DaysPartnership if you believe that every child, everywhere, deserves the right nutrition to grow, learn and thrive.

global teamI wrote this post as part of The Global Team of 200, a highly specialized group of members of Mom Bloggers for Social Good that concentrates on issues involving women and girls, children, world hunger and maternal health. Our Motto: Individually we are all powerful. Together we can change the world. We believe in the power of collective action to help others and believe in ourselves to make this world a better place for our children and the world’s children.

 

With The Lunch Money Challenge From the World Food Program USA You Can Help #FeedADream

With The Lunch Money Challenge From the World Food Program USA You Can Help #FeedADream

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During a conference call with the World Food Program USA, over the phone from Kenya, Fatuma Mohamed credited the school meals program with helping to get her where she is today. Fatuma is a senior programme assistant with the World Food Programme in Dadaab, Kenya with a university degree.  Not the outcome that would normally have been predicted for the Somalian daughter of a financially struggling widow growing up in Kenya’s northeastern province. At that time, the Somali community did not even believe in allowing girls to go to school.

Her mother had little money and faced hostility from their family because she refused to be inherited as Fatuma’s father’s brother’s wife. Although her mother had no formal education herself, she knew how important an education would be to her children.

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Fatuma Mohamed

Not only did sending her children to school provide the education that enabled Fatuma to avoid her destiny to drop out of school to tend cattle, but through the World Food Program Fatuma and her siblings were provided a school meal each day. For some children living in poverty, that school meal provided may be their ONLY meal of the day.

In the developing world, 66 million kids come to school hungry each day. many children don’t attend school at all. Poverty and tradition often exclude girls from education.

In Nairobi, Kenya, less than half of school-age children attend formal schools, due to poverty, safety and girls being unfairly excluded from school.

Malnutrition at an early age leads to reduced physical and mental development. Hungry kids in school focus on their empty stomachs, not their studies.

School meals can be life-changing for the world’s poorest children. School meals also help to get students into the classroom, giving them an important key to a better future—an education.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) provides school meals to more than 24 million children each year. School feeding also gives poor families an incentive to send children to school, especially girls.

25 cents provides a child with a nutritious meal, $50 provides school lunch for a child for an entire year.

 From October 14th to october 18th The World Food Program USA Invites you to take part in The Lunch Money Challenge.

Research tells us that nearly $2,000.00 a year is spent on average to eat lunch out at work by the two-thirds of Americans who do.  If a person brought their lunch and donated the money they otherwise would have spent to buy it, then donated that money to the World Food Program USA‘s Lunch Money Challenge this week, they could feed a hungry school child for a year.

WFPUSA works with countries interested in owning and managing their school meals programs, to make them strong and sustainable. Helping communities become self sufficient is one of the ways that WFPUSA is solving hunger worldwide, by working with local governments, schools and farmers to build programs that are long lasting sustainable and cost-effective and when the WFPUSA work is done, local governments can take over and manage these programs. Home-grown school meals from local family farmers lift up the entire community—local ingredients mean both local children and local farmers can thrive.  When school meal programs are linked with local family farmers, kids receive home-grown school meals. Not only do home-grown school meals programs improve child nutrition, they also boost local economies.

Photo Courtesy of WFP USA

Photo Courtesy of WFP USA

These days Fatuma encourages the girls she works with in the program to stay in school. When girls stay in school they tend to marry at an older age, have fewer children, and increase their earning potential.  Fatuma’s relationship with the World Food Program goes back to when she was just 7 years old and she serves as a great example of the programs ability to transform lives.

 “Women are the foundation of every society and girls grow into women and need to be supported. Nothing can move forward in the world without women, mothers, and girls.”-Fatuma Mohamed

World Food Program USA (WFP USA) works to solve global hunger by supporting the work of the united nations World Food programme (WFP) through fundraising, advocacy and education in the united nations. WFP works in over 75 countries, saving lives in emergencies, providing school meals to hungry children, improving nutrition of the most vulner- able people at critical times in their lives and helping build the self-reliance of people and communities.

missionlistlogo copy*This sponsored post is part of a campaign with The Mission List and the World Food Program USA. All opinions are my own. Facts from the WFPUSA.

Food For Thought; Save The Children Reports

Food For Thought; Save The Children Reports

report copyOn June 17th and 18th world leaders, including President Obama, will convene in Northern Ireland for the G8 Summit.  Based on a newly released report by Save The Children, titled Food For Thought, Global nutrition should be high on the agenda.   We have known for a long time that good nutrition is important for kids.  What the Food For Thought Report highlights is that it is not just important, it is critical.  Good nutrition, it turns out, especially in the first 1,000 days of life when the body and brain is growing rapidly, is more crucial to proper development than we realized.

“A quarter of the world’s children are suffering the effects of chronic malnutrition. Poor nutrition in the early years is driving a literacy and numeracy crisis in developing countries and is also a huge barrier to further progress in tackling child deaths,” said Carolyn Miles, Save the Children CEO and President.

Save the Children’s report also highlights the huge economic cost of chronic malnutrition. Chronic Malnutrition causes stunting of cognitive development that results in the inability to reach full adult potential.  That means a quarter of the worlds adults will not be able to fully contribute to their communities in the way they would had they received proper nutrition as a child.  Spending on nutrition programs is one of the most cost effective forms of development assistance, yet currently amounts to just 0.3 per cent of global development spending. Any investment now, the report says, would be a down payment on future prosperity.

 

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“Improving the nutritional status of children and women in the crucial 1,000-day window – from the start of a woman’s pregnancy until her child’s second birthday – could greatly increase a children’s ability to learn and to earn,” said Miles. “World leaders gathering in London on June 8th must commit to concrete actions to tackle malnutrition in those critical 1,000 days, and invest in the future of our children.”

Of course the need for good nutrition does not end there. As a parent I know it is a life long commitment to ensure that my kids eat healthfully. I also know how challenging it can be to make sure to fit in all of the nutrients kids need in their daily meals.  That’s why I love easy finger food vegetables for my kids like sliced cucumbers, carrot sticks or Iceberg lettuce wedges.

My favorite easy Gr8 recipe that all my kids love is Edamame:Edamame

Steam fresh or frozen Edamame in the pods.

Toss the cooked pods with a bit of kosher salt.

Let the kids pop out the beans and enjoy!

Check out more Gr8 recipes for healthful eating options on twitter #Gr8Recipes .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can help let President Obama know that nutrition is an important item on the agenda by tweeting @whitehouse with your messages using the hashtags #next1000days and #Nutrition4Growth . A sample tweet may read something like this:

  •  @whitehouse let’s make sure all kids get healthy food in their #next1000days so they can reach their full potential. #Nutrition4Growth

Save the Children is the leading, independent organization that creates lasting change for children in need in the United States and around the world. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

global teamI wrote this post as part of The Global Team of 200, a highly specialized group of members of Mom Bloggers for Social Good that concentrates on issues involving women and girls, children, world hunger and maternal health.

Our Motto: Individually we are all-powerful. Together we can change the world. We believe in the power of collective action to help others and believe in ourselves to make this world a better place for our children and the world’s children.

 

My Summer in Bolivia and What The The World Food Programme Is Doing There Now

My Summer in Bolivia and What The The World Food Programme Is Doing There Now

Photo by Elizabeth Atalay

Boarding the cargo plane to San Ignacio

We held tightly to the ropes that held the crates of beer to the floor upon landing, and squealed as we hovered  slightly before coming back down hard .  So that’s why seatbelts on planes are so important! As the door opened we were hit with steamy air, thick with humidity and the scent of verdant earth. We had arrived in San Ignacio, Bolivia, in the middle of the jungle.   I turned to my friend Maria as we climbed down to the dirt runway, and exclaimed breathlessly, “you never told me”!   Maria has been my best friend since high school, and though we grew up in the same town outside of Boston, she had spent the year after her parents split up when she was 13, in Bolivia, where they were from.  San Ignacio, was the town her mother had grown up in, and where her grandparents still lived.  Chickens ran through the open structure of the home, and you poured buckets of water brought from the lake over you for showers in the outdoor shower stall.  I had never seen any place so beautiful, so wild, and natural in my entire life.  As we stepped off the cargo plane we had taken to get there, I was totally blown away.

Photo by Elizabeth Atalay

We spent the summer between sophomore and junior year of College in Bolivia visiting Maria’s relatives and traveling around the country.  I was struck by the economic extremes, while we stayed at one cousin’s house in the suburbs of La Paz, we met wealthy Bolivian kids who took us to the nightclubs in their BMW’s and had households full of staff.  This was contrasted by shacks climbing the sides of the hills that lined the city of La Paz where we stayed with her Aunt, there seemed to be no middle class, just ultra rich or what in the U.S.A. we would consider extremely poor.  Our summer in Bolivia was filled with crazy South American adventures of all kinds, and it cracked open my world. The people, food, landscapes and culture of Bolivia found a permanent place in my heart.

Photo by Elizabeth Atalay

When I heard about the World Food Program initiative to provide meals to school children in Bolivia I wanted to take part.  As a member of the Global Team of 200, a highly specialized group of Mom Bloggers for Social Good that concentrates on issues involving women and girls, children, world hunger and maternal health committed to Social Good, we are committed to spreading the word about important programs such as this.  The World Food Programme is part of the United Nations System and, is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. The WFP provides meals to 80,000 children in Bolivia, which is one of the poorest countries in South America. Malnutrition causes stunting in 40% of the children in the poorest areas of Bolivia, and the World Food Program is working to break the cycle of hunger so the kids can get the nutrition they need to stay in school and to achieve their full potential.  

You can make one of the children benefitting from this program extremely happy by simply sending a message to one of the school children in Bolivia. There a communications officer will translate and share your messages with the kids as well as translate and deliver their answers back to you. Click here to send your message now.

Photo by Elizabeth Atalay