Washington — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says his department is investing more than $8.5 million to help ensure women, children and infants around the world have essential vitamins and minerals in their diet through specially fortified foods.
The funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will help six organizations develop improved food-aid products under the Micronutrient-Fortified Food Aid Products Pilot Program. This program is funded by the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, and recipients will focus their efforts over the next three years in Cambodia, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Mozambique and Tanzania.
“These grants will fund the development of new food aid products that are tailored to the nutritional needs of a specific population,” Vilsack said December 6. “Our efforts to support global food security are important to the many people around the world who do not have access to nutritious and safe food. Fresh approaches to food assistance are also critically important to the sustainable economic growth of these nations and the economic prosperity and national security of our own country.”
Under the pilot program, participants develop and field-test food aid products for women, children and infants. The products are nutritionally enhanced with vitamins or minerals to address the micronutrient deficiencies of specific populations or groups. The products are developed in the United States using domestically grown commodities.
The first program award was issued in August 2010 to the International Partnership for Human Development Inc., which continues to test its ready-to-use, supplementary dairy paste in Guinea-Bissau.
New products that have recently received approval include fortified rice in Cambodia, a lipid-based nutrient spread in Haiti, a poultry-based fortified spread in Guatemala, soy-fortified custard/pudding in Mozambique and sorghum/cowpea-fortified blended food in Tanzania.
Through the pilot program, USDA hopes to identify new, more effective products for distribution through the McGovern-Dole program. McGovern-Dole participants either use or sell the donated U.S. commodities in recipient countries to help support education, child development and food security in low-income, food-deficit countries that are committed to universal education. For example, in Bangladesh, 350,000 children in more than 1,800 schools are being fed by the World Food Programme with help from the McGovern-Dole program. Currently, 37 food aid agreements are being funded with 16 cooperating sponsors in 30 countries, assisting more than 5 million beneficiaries.
The McGovern-Dole program is named in honor of Ambassador and former Senator George McGovern and former Senator Robert Dole for their efforts to encourage a global commitment to school feeding and child nutrition. In October 2008, both men were recognized by the World Food Prize for their leadership in forging the link between the productivity of American farmers and the needs of hungry children around the world.
The Micronutrient-Fortified Food Aid Products Pilot Program and the McGovern-Dole program are administered by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service. More information can be found at www.fas.usda.gov.
The McGovern-Dole program complements the United States’ leadership in the 1,000 Days partnership and global Scaling Up Nutrition movement, which support improved nutrition in early life when it has the greatest impact on cognition, growth and lifetime health.
USDA’s food aid programs contribute to the goals of President Obama’s global hunger and food-security initiative, Feed the Future. Feed the Future is part of a multilateral effort launched at the L’Aquila World Summit on Food Security in 2009 to accelerate progress toward the Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty and suffering from hunger by 2015. More information on Feed the Future can be found at www.feedthefuture.gov.
Following is a list of products under the pilot program that recently received approval:
| Country | Participant | Product | Beneficiaries | Estimated Value |
| Cambodia | PATH: A Catalyst for Global Health | Fortified rice | 8,000 | $2,700,000 |
| Guatemala | Hormel Food Corporation | Poultry-based fortified spread | 100 | $120,000 |
| Guinea-Bissau | International Partnership for Human Development | Fortified dairy protein paste * | 4,000 | $1,800,000 |
| Haiti | Meds and Foods for Kids | Lipid-based nutrient spread | 1,560 | $1,000,000 |
| Mozambique | Joint Aid Management | Soy-fortified custard/pudding | 2,250 | $800,000 |
| Tanzania | Kansas State University | Sorghum-cowpea fortified blended food | 756 | $3,000,000 |
| TOTAL: 14,466 beneficiaries, $8,600,000 | ||||
| * This product also received approval in 2010. | ||||