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A production chain at the Rhode Island factory in Edesia Nutrition. While the Trump administration has expressed arrest work and interrupted payments, the company had to reduce the production and distribution of therapeutic foods it does, a peanut paste called Plumpy’nut. Last week, the American government will resume the order of the product, which is designed to bring children suffering from malnutrition from the edge.
Gabrielle Emanuel/NPR
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Gabrielle Emanuel/NPR
Navyn Salem cried when she received a call last week – but they were happy tears.
They were launched by a message from the American State Department: after months of confusion of stop work orders, contractual dismissals and foreign assistance cuts, the federal government is ready to restart the control of therapeutic food designed to bring the children of the malnutrition on the edge.
“Someone brought me my phone and said” look at which message just “”, she recalls in an interview with NPR. “It was our first order [from the U.S. government] For 2025. “
Salem is the founder and CEO of Edesia Nutrition, who buys raw materials like soy, peanuts and powdered milk from American farmers, then, in his Rhode Island factory, treats ingredients in Rogny’nut packages. Each package contains a paste of peanut butter, a type of ready -to -use therapeutic food or Rutf which has become a key tool in global efforts to fight against famine.
Navyn Salem is the founder of Edistesia Nutrition, a Rhode Island factory which manufactures a therapeutic food for unhappy children. This week, she obtained her first 2025 order from the United States government, her biggest client, after a series of work vouchers and cancellations.
Gabrielle Emanuel / NPR
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During a typical year, the factory offers a complete eight -week treatment to 5 million children in some 25 countries, often in war areas and humanitarian crises. But in recent times, these boxes full of fog have been based on the warehouse because of President Trump’s cuts to foreign aid.
“It’s tragic,” said Salem at NPR in February watching the boxes.
Now, the US government, which was its biggest customer, is back, she said.
In an NPR declaration, the State Department confirmed that it spent $ 93 million in Rutf, working with UNICEF to transport and distribute it in a dozen African countries and Haiti. He said it will be enough to help nearly a million children.
“We are just above the moon trying to treat all these good news, after many, a lot, a lot of bad news,” said Salem.
This is good news … but is it great news?
This is a welcome development for countries that should receive this aid: Haiti, Central Republic of Africa, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan from the South and Sudan.
Children who have access to the Rutfs do much better than children who do not have access to this food. Independent researchers have found that the survival rate of seriously ill -fed children was around 25% in the pre -assumptionti era – and the use of rutfs since 2001 increased this number to 80 to 90%.
And the news is a boost for the two American companies that make Rutfs – Edesia Nutrition and a company based in Georgia called Mana Nutrition.
Plumpy’nu bars made at the EDESIA nutrition plant in Rhode Island. Therapeutic food is recognized for having considerably improved the survival rate of children with malnutrition. The orders of the United States government have been suspended in recent months in the middle of the revival of foreign aid from the Trump administration.
Gabrielle Emanuel / NPR
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Gabrielle Emanuel / NPR
In Edesia, said Salem, she rehabilitates six of the 16 staff that she had to dismiss in the spring, she publishes new job offers and adds a quarter of Saturday.
But some famine experts welcome development much more carefully.
Welsh Caitlin – The Director of the World Food Safety and Water Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies – says that this news has not necessarily changed the situation. But this is good news regarding the commitment of the State Department towards emergency humanitarian aid.
“It says to me: there is a pulse there-it is not completely dead. But no one should be confused by thinking that it is a long-term solution,” she said. “And what we have not yet seen from the State Department is the indication that the programs and financing which were intended to combat long -term food security will be taken up.”
For example, it highlights programs that aim to stimulate local agriculture and make communities subject to famine more resilient to food crises. She says that such efforts have been hampered by foreign aid cuts and have not been restarted.
In addition, by its estimate, the new commitment to buy and distribute RUTF represents less than half of what the United States spent therapeutic food last year. And, she says, it is much less than what is necessary. In the 13 countries, the United States has designated as recipient countries, said Welsh, there are 24 million malnutric children. Although it adds, other countries and organizations also contribute to the help effort.
In the Department of State Department at NPR, he declared that he “finalized additional funding” for nutrition programs.
Alex de Waal, who studies famines at TUFTS University, says that since the inauguration of Trump, the differential between the necessary food aid and what is provided.
“We just had a catastrophic gap, and this is only the first step towards filling this gap,” he said. “It’s a baby stage.”
But at Edesia Nutrition, the news that the United States will resume the RUTF command represents a big step forward. These pallets full of misty boxes in their warehouse will soon be on the way to the children of malnutrition who need them.
