Boeing Institute of International Business Advisory Board member Todd Hovermale leads a discussion with Meds & Food for Kids Founder Dr. Patricia Wolff and CEO Chris Greene about work being done in Haiti to treat malnutrition.
This interview comes immediately after Pat and Chris returned from their visit to Haiti, where they worked with MFK's factory as they increase production to meet the growing needs of malnutrition treatment across the country and abroad.
Learn more about the origins of Meds & Food for Kids, why Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food works, and how MFK uniquely meets the needs of malnourished children, their families, and communities.
During national Catholic Schools Week, Patricia Wolff, MD, alumna of Archbishop Murray Memorial High School in Maplewood, Minnesota, is in Haiti to support the local staff of Meds & Food for Kids in tripling the production of emergency, life-saving Ready- To-Use Therapeutic-Food. Produced by Meds & Food for Kids, the organization Dr. Wolff founded in Cap Haitien, this therapeutic food is recognized as the gold standard treatment for children at risk of dying from severe acute malnutrition, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
As the Keynote presenter at Hill-Murray’s Founders Speaker Series on Monday, February 13, 2023, Dr. Wolff will share her decades of experience and insight gained from her dedication to treating and preventing malnutrition in Haiti and around the world. She credits her Archbishop Murray education for helping her choose a path as a pediatrician and, eventually leading her to found Meds & Food for Kids, a non-profit organization that has helped save 700,000 children’s lives over the past 20 years. Meds & Food for Kids works in Haiti and helps families and children in17 additional countries. Dr. Wolff now serves as the Senior Advisor for Meds & Food for Kids which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.
Dr. Wolff earned her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Minnesota and has practiced medicine in Rapid City South Dakota. St. Louis Missouri and Haiti. She has also served as a Clinical Professor and other roles, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Among her many awards are, NAACP 25 Most Inspiring St. Louisans; Global Stewardship Award/ St. Louis Peace Corps Association; Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, University of Missouri, St. Louis; the World Affairs Council Humanist of the Year Award and the Global Service Leadership Award from St. Louis University’s Boeing Institute for International Business.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 31, 2027- Cap Haitien, Haiti – On January 27, UNICEF issued a new, urgent call to help the children of Haiti, noting that “one in two children depends on humanitarian aid to survive this year in Haiti. Over the past two years, the number of Haitian children in need of humanitarian assistance has increased by half a million.”
Despite supply chain issues and civil disruption, Meds & Food for Kids’ Cap Haitien factory is expanding capacity to produce and distribute its life saving, ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF), to treat severely malnourished infants, children and pregnant women in Haiti and 17 other countries.
Meds & Food for Kids’ CEO Chris Greene and Dr. Patricia B. Wolff, MD, founder and senior advisor, are in Cap Haitien this week to support the team of 80+ factory staff and the community as they work to triple production of RUTF, recognized as the gold standard treatment for severe acute malnutrition by the World Health Organization.
Meds & Food for Kids continues its life saving mission, despite difficult – but not impossible – conditions, including two years of pandemic-related supply chain issues and the recent civil disruption. MFK produces and works with Haitian schools and clinics to distribute the supplement even in these times. In December 2022 alone, the factory produced and delivered a record amount of life-saving, emergency food to treat tens of thousands severely malnourished infants, toddlers and school-age children throughout Haiti.
MFK’s strong local network of partners helps to ensure safe transportation for continued distribution to schools and clinics throughout Haiti.
“Even as headlines paint a grim picture of conditions in Port au Prince, MFK is expanding production to answer UNICEF’s call to triple RUTF production this year,” said Greene. “We’re committed to meeting the urgent needs of millions of severely malnourished infants, children and pregnant mothers in Haiti and in 17 other countries where MFK’s RUTF is distributed by UNICEF.”
“The persistence, resilience, courage, and hard work of the Haitian people has only grown over MFK’s 20 years in Haiti,” said Dr. Wolff. “Meds & Food for Kids’ comprehensive approach treats child malnutrition and builds local sustainability. Life-saving therapeutic foods are part of the solution today and part of the future of Haiti.”
More than 80 Haitians working at the Meds & Food for Kids factory in Cap Haitien produce Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) using simple ingredients like the peanuts sourced from local, smallholder farmers. The factory employs and trains Haitians enabling them to provide for their families and helps create sustainable change to build the Haitian economy.
MFK also teaches farmers how to improve the quality and quantity of their peanut crop yields, trains healthcare workers to treat malnutrition, and provides school kids with nutritious snacks to prevent malnutrition and increase classroom engagement.
MFK’s vision sees a local economy in Haiti that grows and flourishes on its own, providing stable jobs and meeting the nutritional needs of every Haitian.
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Meds & Food for Kids is part of the solution today and part of the future of Haiti.
For more information contact:
Maggie Probert, Chief Advancement Officer
(314) 630-2119
mprobert@mfkhaiti.org
For more information contact:
Maggie Probert, Chief Advancement Officer
(314) 630-2119
mprobert@mfkhaiti.org
Meds & Food for Kids is pleased to join the Alliance to End Hunger as a member. Our vision and work epitomize the UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 “To end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.” “As such, partnership with the Alliance seems perfectly matched to enhance the work of both organizations,” states Chris Greene, CEO of Meds & Food for Kids.
Meds & Food for Kids’ four-pronged approach to treating hunger and malnutrition aligns perfectly with the Alliance’s efforts to solve the root causes of hunger. The coalition of members includes other non-profits, faith-based organizations, corporations and private businesses, universities and foundations, among others, all working to build the public and political will to end hunger at home and abroad.
“We feel that the Alliance to End Hunger will be an invaluable partner as MFK seeks to end malnutrition in Haiti and around the world,” stated Greene. We look forward to working with our partners in the Alliance to Save Lives and Give Hope.
SMART GIVING TODAY & TOMORROW:
USING YOUR IRA FOR CHARITABLE GIVING
Using an IRA for Charitable Giving today is a great way to reduce taxes today while supporting charitable organizations, such as Meds & Food for Kids (MFK).
You can make a gift directly from your IRA, called a “Qualified Charitable Distribution” (QCD), which you can do starting from when you turn age 70 1⁄2, if you are no longer working and contributing to an IRA.
A Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) is an otherwise taxable distribution from your IRA that is paid directly from your IRA to a qualified charity, such as Meds & Food for Kids. Your QCD can satisfy all or part of your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) from your IRA.
WHAT ARE THE TAX BENEFITS?
When you make a QCD to Meds & Food for Kids, you will still report the distribution on your tax return, however, the “taxable amount” will be less the amount of your gift. Note, you do not get a charitable deduction as the QCD has already been taken out of your income. A QCD also reduces your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) upon which many other tax items and Medicare payments are based.
These materials were prepared for informational purposes only based on materials deemed reliable, but the accuracy of which has not been independently verified. You should consult with an appropriately credentialed professional before making any financial, investment, tax or legal decision. These materials do not take into consideration your personal circumstances, financial or otherwise.
Prepared by Sward Team of the Moneta Group | 314.244.3301 | swardteam@monetagroup.com
For more information, contact Maggie Probert, mprobert@mfkhaiti.org.
Smotkin received this year’s Pro Bono Award posthumously for his pro bono lawyer for Meds & Food for Kids, an organization that addresses malnutrition in Haiti. When the organization was founded, Smotkin voluntarily handled the legal work in setting up the nonprofit, getting its tax-exempt status, overseeing construction contracts, advising on employment issues at both the St. Louis and Haiti facilities, and more.
Smotkin was the “voice of common sense and reason” for Meds & Food for Kids for nearly 20 years and was instrumental in building it from the ground up, said Hon. Michael W. Wolff, who nominated Smotkin for the award. Wolff is a retired Supreme Court of Missouri judge and professor emeritus and former dean of Saint Louis University School of Law.
“This remarkable organization in large part owes its existence and its ability to render its services to Howard Smotkin, who truly has been the organization’s unpaid and essential ‘wise man.’” Wolff said. “He has been for this Meds & Food for Kids organization – as he has for many of his regular clients – a true hero, a great model for the kind of servant-leaders and generous professionals that we want lawyers to be.”
Click here to learn more about annual awards presented by The Missouri Bar, The Missouri Bar Foundation, and other entities. Read here for other 2022 award winners.
For more information contact:
Maggie Probert, Chief Advancement Officer
(314) 630-2119
mprobert@mfkhaiti.org
Meds & Food for Kids is celebrating the 10th Anniversary of its world-class factory that produces Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) to treat children with severe malnutrition in Haiti and in 17 additional countries worldwide.
The official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the factory in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti was held on October 26th, 2012. Since then the factory has produced 6,184 metric tons of life-saving RUTF, treating more than 448,000 malnourished children. UNICEF distributes the therapeutic food produced by Meds & Food for Kids to treat severely malnourished children in 17 countries in Central America, the Caribbean, South America, Central Africa, and West Africa.
“The seeds planted 10 years ago have produced a bounty of lives saved and hope for generations of children and families in Haiti and around the world,” stated Dr. Patricia B. Wolff, Founder of Meds & Food for Kids. “This amazing factory was completely funded by generous private donors through the “Local Hands, Bright Future Capital Campaign” that was led by St. Louisans Thad W. Simons, former President and Chief Executive Officer of Novus International, and Dr. Peter Raven, President Emeritus of Missouri Botanical Garden,” noted Dr. Wolff.
“The 10-year legacy of the factory includes hundreds of thousands of children who are alive and healthier today along with the economic and educational betterment of tens of thousands of Haitian families. This is all thanks to the generosity of thousands of caring volunteers, supporters, and donors,” Dr. Wolff added.
For more information about the factory and Meds & Food for Kids visit www.mfkhaiti.org.
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Founded in 2003, Meds & Food for Kids transforms the lives of malnourished children and mothers in Haiti and 17 other countries through the production and distribution of therapeutic foods. Since 2003 MFK has treated more than 600,000 children and pregnant women; educated more than 2,600 Haitian peanut farmers; and supplemented more than 121,300 schoolchildren.
On this 10th anniversary of the opening of Meds & Food for Kids’ (MFK) factory in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, I am feeling overwhelmed by the enormous donations of time, skills and money from hundreds of people. This is my story of the winding pathway, with a few wrong turns, that led to the successful completion of the factory in Quartier Morin, Haiti. I fear I may have failed to mention people who were so important. Please contact me and jog my memory!
Part 1 of 2
First, there was a person with a grinder on the street in Cap-Haitien. Dumel Louis, MFK’s General Manager, and I brought powdered milk, sugar, oil and peanuts to him and he ground them up and put the mixture in a 5-gallon bucket. This was not a reliably “safe food” methodology so we redoubled our efforts to get our own mechanical grinder.
After making 20 phones calls to somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody, we were able to buy a hand grinder from Compatible Technologies, Inc. (CTI) in St. Paul, MN. CTI, a non-profit group whose mission was to invent low-tech food processing machines for low-tech countries. They insisted that I come to St. Paul to take the grinder apart, clean it and put it together again. They were not having any failures on their watch. I left with the grinder in my luggage.
After attorney Howard Smotkin successfully created the non-profit Meds & Food for Kids, with the help of Judge Duane Benton, we were able to receive a $11,700 International Rotary grant for the grinder, the raw materials for 100 Kg of Medika Mamba and salaries for 1-2 days of hand grinding a month for the first year.
The Cap-Haitien Methodist Church gave us a schoolroom to use for a few months. At the Tovar village church clinic we took a week’s worth of therapeutic Medika Mamba out of a 5 gallon bucket and put it into recycled yogurt containers from the US, and provided instructions for the caretakers to give the children an appropriate for weight number of tablespoons of Medika Mamba, eight times per day washed down with three ounces of clean water. We also gave the child a daily children’s chewable vitamin and instructions to bring the child back to clinic in one week. If the child was very ill, we might ask them to come back in two days or send them to the hospital. However, in the beginning, the hospitals had nothing to give the children.
Soon though, the MFK protocol for treating malnutrition was adopted as the national malnutrition protocol, thanks to thesupport of Dr. Joseline Marhone Pierre, the head of nutrition for the Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population.
Part 2 of 2
Capital Campaign
MFK needed capital for a new factory and skilled people. Thankfully, the eminent botanist, Dr. Peter Raven, and Thad Simons agreed to chair a capital campaign to raise $3.2 million for the new factory. MFK staff member, Steve Taviner, orchestrated the complex campaign.
Campaign donations poured in from individuals and corporate donors including Nestles Corp, which contributed almost $300K, thanks to help from Betsy Cohen at Nestles-Ralston. Steve Tillery of Korein Tillery, advocated for a $400K cy pres award to be directed to MFK and the judge agreed.
Most importantly, many people gave time, money and skills for free, or deeply discounted, and many people volunteered extraordinary work in Haiti. For example, MFK finally was able to purchase a peanut roaster thanks to funding from Michael and Nancy Worthing. That roaster was installed by Jamie Rhoads and “validated” with help from Steve Calhoun at the American Peanut Council. It is still used in the factory today.
The Construction
In January 2011, Joe Grealy appeared at our house/factory and told us he would make an excellent project manager for the new factory. He had been building houses on the Haitian-DR border and he was looking for the next project. Joe had heard we were planning to build a factory.
Within a month Joe, with the help of Haitian Notary, Paul Duvot,had located a piece of affordable land just outside Cap-Haitien, in Quartier Morin.
We immediately needed a new plan for a new factory. Both Jamie(“Fifi”) VanArtsdalen and Eyleen Chu were very helpful engineering fellows with MFK at the time. Eyleen had interned in Madison, Wisconsin with the ACS engineering firm. At her request, ACS agreed to do bridge documents for water treatment and HVAC.
Without a license to build in Haiti, these bridge documents needed to be handed over to another construction firm. Mike Reed, an MFK board member, introduced us to Rick Moeckel at Clayco Inc. Rick not only consulted and coordinated our building efforts but also secured building materials at deep discounts and skilled people who were essential to building the factory.
Rick introduced MFK to Burns & McDonnell, an engineering firm in St. Louis. Breck Washam and Ron Jones generously offered architect Jennifer Rehg to design the factory.
When I reflect back on Dr. Pat and MFK Haiti, I recall a meeting in my office at Novus International. I came to know Pat through one of my associates who was originally from Brazil and Pat was his son's pediatrician. My son had also been on a college trip to support building a school in a remote part of Haiti and my wife and I had bought many Haitian art pieces to support the effort for the school. The artists have a tremendous sense of color. I only knew of the poverty and the political challenges I read about in the newspaper. Pat was very clear-eyed about the situation in the country and made it clear that getting involved there was not for the faint of heart.
Pat and her family had traveled to Haiti many times to bring medical treatment and food to the starving children there. But pretty early on she saw the potential of doing something more than saving a single child as important as that is. She saw the potential of setting up a factory in Haiti to produce medical food with Haitian workers and sourcing from Haitian farmers. By creating jobs in Haiti, she would save not only the starving children but create livelihoods for whole families.
This was unheard of and not at all how a normal food relief agency worked. By the time the fundraising started for the new factory, she had already set up and run several other facilities on a small scale. It was a brilliant move that directly challenged the Haitian model of an economy built off of a debilitating cycle of philanthropic projects with limited funding cycles. She used philanthropy to build an eventually self-sustaining business.
When I reflect on building the factory for Meds & Food for Kids, my leading thought is how amazing it is that a small NGO with no building experience built a factory on its own without major delays. There was no big budget for an exploratory project. There was no paid professional design/build company.
More than fifteen companies and another six plus individual engineers came together to make the factory happen. Most donated time and many donated materials. When there was a gap to fill, someone was always there to step in. The level of collaboration was superb.
The factory project was often chaotic. We had to make decisions on-the-go, because many things had not been worked out in advance. After working on staid projects for a Fortune 500 company, I found this exhilarating.
Building the factory was personally rewarding. I was working on something that really mattered. I was able to use my experience working on international projects and I got to use hands-on construction skills learned off-the-job. Where else could a retired person get to work with so many great people from throughout the US and multiple countries? I learned so much from these people and I gained many new friends. Being part of this project was a privilege.
Dave Harmann
For more information contact:
Maggie Probert, Chief Advancement Officer
(314) 630-2119
mprobert@mfkhaiti.org
The Board of Directors of Meds & Food for Kids selected Chris Greene as its new CEO on June 5, 2022. The organization, with offices in St. Louis, MO, and Cap-Haitien, Haiti, provides Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food for children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Haiti and 17 additional countries.
The United Nations estimates that hunger devastates the lives of more than 800 million people globally. The World Food Program recently announced that 45 million children, age 5 and younger, are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and are at imminent risk of death.
“We are pleased to announce that Chris Greene has rejoined Meds & Food for Kids as CEO,” said Board President Jeff Klopfenstein. ”With his previous experience as Chief Operations Officer for Meds & Food for Kids, Chris brings a deep understanding of the organization that’s crucial at this time of international crisis,” stated Klopfenstein.
“Chris will continue the groundbreaking work established by the Founder, Dr. Patricia Wolff,” he added. “She has changed so many lives because of her vision, scientific rigor, and indefatigable commitment to children,” said Klopfenstein. “To date, Dr. Wolff’s work has resulted in providing Ready-to-UseTherapeutic Food to nearly 600,000 malnourished children.”
“I am delighted that Chris has returned to Meds & Food for Kids,” said Dr. Wolff. “He brings great expertise in food production and a deep commitment to our mission to transform the lives of malnourished children and mothers.”
“Dr. Wolff’s leadership has made Meds & Food for Kids a global leader in finding solutions to world hunger. I’m honored to follow Dr. Wolff’s example and to build on Meds & Food for Kids’ record of humanitarian service,” Greene said.
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Founded in 2003, Meds & Food for Kids transforms the lives of malnourished children and mothers in Haiti and 17 other countries through the distribution and production of therapeutic foods. Since 2003 MFK has treated almost 600,000 malnourished children; trained more than 2,500 Haitian peanut farmers; and fed more than 121,300 anemic schoolchildren.
For more information contact:
Maggie Probert, Chief Advancement Officer
(314) 630-2119
mprobert@mfkhaiti.org
Dr. Patricia Wolff, founder of Meds & Food for Kids, has been chosen by the Boeing Institute of International Business at Saint Louis University as a recipient of the Global Service Leadership Award. The Award recognizes the exceptional global achievements of individuals who have been pioneers in expanding global business and in promoting international business and service.
As a pediatrician, Patricia B. Wolff, M. D., provided volunteer medical services for 15 years to Haitian children. She learned that “These children were sick because they were malnourished.”
In response, Dr. Wolff began self-producing a Ready-To-Use Therapeutic food that didn’t need refrigeration, was easily transported, and was simple to administer to infants and young children. Based on the profound impact on the children, Dr. Wolff rented “factory” space, hired local Haitians, and purchased locally grown peanuts from Haitian farmers. The “factory” moved from one location to another for 9 years until 2012 when the capital campaign was completed for the current 20,000 sq ft factory in Cap Haitien.
“Our plan was to treat malnutrition by addressing the root cause of poverty, the lack of jobs. The result is that we are saving lives and giving hope to entire communities,” said Dr. Wolff.
Today, that new factory employs 88 Haitians, works with more than 2,500 local farmers, and produces in excess of 300 metric tons of Ready-To-Use Therapeutic food that is helping to save lives in Haiti and 17 additional countries.
“Over the past 20 years the organization has saved the lives of almost 600,000 children and has helped provide meaningful livelihoods and skills-training for thousands of Haitians,” noted Dr. Wolff.
“It takes more than a village. I have been honored to be the orchestra conductor of this beautiful symphony of kindness and generosity,” Dr. Wolff stated. “It has been humbling to represent the work of Meds & Food for Kids.”
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Founded in 2003, Meds & Food for Kids transforms the lives of malnourished children and mothers in Haiti and 17 other countries through the distribution and production of therapeutic foods. Since 2003 MFK has treated almost 600,000 malnourished children; trained more than 2,500 Haitian peanut farmers; and fed more than 121,300 anemic schoolchildren.
It is hard to believe that it has been 10 years since the MFK Haiti factory was completed. We first became involved with MFK Haiti a couple of years prior to delivery of the factory when a mutual friend (Mike Reed) asked Kirk Warden and me about getting involved.
Mike Reed was a neighbor of Dr. Pat Wolff and was on the ownership side of a protein-based lab and production facility that Clayco was working on with him in St. Louis at the time. Mike approached Clayco and me to discuss our interest in helping with MFK Haiti as they were outgrowing their current operations and working towards implementing their vision of building a state-of-the-art facility that could increase product for a growing need for the lifesaving Medika Mamba product.
We quickly learned that Pat Wolff’s work to date and vision for the future was powerful, as it was not only saving many lives, but also building a local economy by training local farmers with the skills needed to grow the proper peanuts for use and then ultimately purchasing those peanuts for use in the MFK product.
As part of our agriculture program, Meds & Food for Kids provides opportunities for young graduates in Haiti to gain tangible experience in the agronomy field. For the next few months, our intern Guiler Israel will be learning about our research method, farmer training, peanut purchases, and more. We are grateful to have him as part of the team!
What did you study, and what school did you go to?
I studied agronomy at the Henry Christop Campus of the State University of Haiti in Limonade. I graduated in 2021.
Why did you choose Agronomy as a career choice?
I come from a rural family where agriculture was my parents' only source of income to support the family. Thus, I grew up with a strong passion for agriculture. Given the difficulties that Haitian agriculture faces day by day, I chose to pursue my career in agronomy to contribute to the revival of Haitian agriculture. Then, to contribute, in my possible way, to the mitigation of global warming which is a serious problem throughout the world.
Why did you choose MFK for your internship?
After finishing my university studies in 2021, I wanted to find an institution to do an internship. After having gathered some information about MFK, both on the internet and by word of mouth, I realized that MFK was the ideal place to start my professional career. That's why I chose the MFK to do this internship.
Danielle Riberio from Great.com interviewed Meds & Food for Kids founder, Dr. Patricia Wolff, as part of their 'Great.com Talks With...' podcast. This series is an antidote to negative news stories that aims to shed light on organizations and experts whose work is making a positive impact on the world.
The 80s and 90s crippled the country to a point where similar underdeveloped countries were surpassing Haiti. Farmers weren't producing food, the country lacked any sort of healthcare, and there was no industry. The country needed a way to break the cycle of poverty and sustainably stimulate economic development. In this episode, Danielle talked with Dr. Patricia Wolff, the founder of Meds & Food for Kids, who started the organization in 2003 to address these urgent needs in Haiti.
Meds & Food for Kids is dedicated to meeting the essential nutritional needs of malnourished children, pregnant and nursing women and school children using Ready-to-Use-Therapeutic Foods (RUTFs) produced in our factory in Cap-Haitien, Haiti.
By transferring skills and knowledge to Haitian men and women and engaging farmers to source local raw materials, we break the cycle of poverty and sustainably stimulate economic development.
Malnutrition treatment is Meds & Food for Kids biggest initiative. So far, we’ve saved over 588,000 children from severe acute malnutrition with our Ready-to-Use-Therapeutic Food, Medika Mamba. Haiti still has nearly 300,000 severely malnourished children currently in need of assistance, according to recent reports from UNICEF.
Other key initiatives include our school snack program, where we donate therapeutic food to school children all over Haiti to prevent malnutrition. Over 120,000 Haitian school children have received our school snack, Vita Mamba. Agricultural development is integral to our mission-- we are investing in Haiti, one farmer at a time, as over 2,500 Haitian workers have been trained to grow more and better peanuts. Our organization then takes the peanuts and produces therapeutic foods in our factory in Haiti.
Great.com is an innovative charity project working to solve the climate crisis. They believe that climate change is the most pressing issue facing mankind today and ending it will take swift action and creative problem solving. Great.com’s founder, Erik Bergman, has a background in online casino marketing and started Great.com with the goal to move money from the New Jersey online casino industry to climate research.
For all of human history, helping those less fortunate than ourselves has been considered proper moral behavior. Today, we who live in the United States, the richest nation on Earth, have no more suitable way of discharging that responsibility than by helping our neighbors in Haiti, who live only 700 miles away across the Caribbean. Their average income is about 1/20th of ours, and their resources have been badly depleted. Through the establishment of peanut farming and the development of a solar-powered factory to produce life-saving food for young children, MFK has channeled our contributions so as to bring about long-term changes in the economic prospects of the Haitian people, an accomplishment of which we can all be justifiably proud. By bringing the means of production home to Haiti, the standard of living and overall prospects for the people.
In view of the importance of these contributions, I was delighted to serve as honorary chair of the “Local Hands, Bright Future” campaign that fostered the local production of peanuts and built the first version of the factory. The generous contributions of many made these advances possible, and we should be pleased with what has been accomplished, as well as eager to move on to even stronger charitable activities in the future. We all owe our deepest thanks to Dr. Pat Wolff for discovering the importance of these activities and bringing them to our attention, and especially for building a robust organization that will continue doing the right thing for many years into the future.
Dr. Peter H. Raven, President Emeritus
Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
The global pandemic has brought into stark relief how closely intertwined our lives are with those in other countries and other continents.
It seems like yesterday that I was working at the factory in Cap-Haïtien. In reality it was three years ago. So much has happened in our world and at Meds & Food for Kids since 2019. The challenges that we have all faced together in the past 3 years have revealed that our worlds are not that different. Disease, unrest, political turmoil, inflation - these are things that we all relate to, a fight we are in together.
It is the reality that we have embraced for more than 20 years at Meds & Food for Kids. We have long practiced the concept that “all ships rise on a high-tide” and that healthy individuals create healthy communities. Lasting change doesn’t happen any other way - it is only when families are whole that communities can be healthy.
To make this reality possible, it requires a committed group of volunteers and MFK staff, and I couldn’t ask for a better team than the one we have - they are resilient, innovative and relentless in our fight against severe malnutrition. Meds & Food for Kids is the only organization in the world that has joined the fight on every front - from working with farmers to grow peanuts, to producing life saving products in Haiti, to working with mothers to save the life of their toddlers - In this war to end malnutrition, our team is in the trenches every day.
With this in mind, I’m excited about the possibilities of expanding Meds & Food for Kids’ impact even further, both in Haiti and around the world. We recently added Ghana as one of the countries to benefit from Medika Mamba, now making 17 countries globally that we serve. With UNICEF’s new commitment to increasing access to Ready-To-Use Foods, we are likewise increasing our production to help more people.
With our partners, supporters and funders, we are moving forward urgently and I look forward to reporting about this growth shortly. In the meantime, many thanks to all of you who are part of the Meds & Food for Kids team!
On August 16th, MFK Founder, Dr. Pat Wolff, and Chief Executive Officer, Chris Greene, were interviewed on St. Louis In The Know on KTRS, 550 AM.
Dear Friends,
Our essential guiding light and hardworking, skilled, and wise pro bono lawyer and co-founder, Howard Smotkin, died on August 9th after a 9-month illness. We at Meds & Food for Kids will greatly miss his calm, generous and thoughtful advice.
A month ago we presented a thank you gift and the following letter, detailing some of his many crucial contributions to the success of MFK for nearly 20 years.
MFK could not have had a better counselor.
Goodbye, Howard, our friend. Our condolences to Howard's loving family and his many friends.
His funeral service will be held Friday, August 12th at 11am at Congregation Temple Israel in St. Louis. Visit bergermemorialchapel.com for live stream information.
Sincerely,
Patricia B. Wolff, MD
Founder & Senior Advisor
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July 15th, 2022
Dear Howard,
Today Meds & Food for Kids would like to formally thank you for the countless hours and often-unheralded work you have done pro bono on behalf of the Haiti’s poorest people and the mission of MFK to save lives, employ and mentor these vulnerable people. Since the idea of MFK surfaced in my mind in2001, you have been my tireless partner in establishing the 501©(3) status, creating a Board, bylaws, etc. –basically the skeleton and flesh of MFK. I have been remiss in not calling you my co-founder because that is exactly the role you played. You have kept MFK within the laws of the US and Haiti and provided common sense advice innumerable crises over the years. You have enabled the accomplishments of more than half a million lives saved, the employment and mentorship of hundreds of Haitians over the years and set MFK onto a path of sustainability into the future.
Your role in the organization has been essential and beyond generous.
From the start, you have been all-in, doing the work of MFK on an ongoing basis for over 20 years.
Your skills as both a CPA and a lawyer have been valuable but most valuable of all has been your good judgment and commitment to the success of the MFK mission. You have always answered the literal call about accidental death, car accidents, death threats, government shenanigans, and choosing among the lawyers available to us.
Your work for MFK has been anything but simple. At the outset you set up a domestic 501©(3) and also a Haitian NGO, preparing and making suggestions for by-laws of both entities. Later you helped us set up NutriYo, a for profit subsidiary of MFK, which was extra legally quashed by the government of Haiti, but had high legal drama in the US associated with its closure. You and Celeste Vossmeyer worked closely together to keep MFK intact and out of court.
You worked long hours with our first volunteer accountant to set up an accounting system, and then another accountant and then another accountant to set up systems that would serve both Haiti and the US and pass muster with auditors. You have been ex officio on the board and its finance committee offering sage advice since MFK’s inception.
You have been diligent in keeping tabs on the books, audits, and have always ensured that MFK has sturdy protocols to protect against fraud and financial malfeasance. Your work has been critical in MFK’s maintaining its highest possible rating on Charity Navigator, the entity that advises donors of organizations’ efficiency, transparency, and financial accountability. Your anticipatory guidance extended to important registrations in U.S. states where MFK does significant fundraising.
The organization started with a modest grant of $11,700 from Rotary International and, with prodigious charitable fundraising and sales of its products to entities like UNICEF, MFK has grown into a factory in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, that employs 88 Haitian workers, along with MFK agronomists and others who work with Haitian peanut farmers to produce better yields and higher quality Haitian peanuts, and clinic nurses who treat severely malnourished children across the country. To build this current factory MFK needed a loan in 2011 from Lichtenstein Venture Philanthropy which required a very complex contract, not unlike MFK’s very complex franchisee contract with Nutriset. Never daunted by complexity, you read these proposed contracts, made common sense and doable suggestions, and spoke to the principals and lawyers on MFK’s behalf in order to protect MFK into the future.
You have overseen and guided MFK’s construction contracts. You also have overseen contracts with digital fundraising services, and with other not-for-profit entities that share revenues with MFK, and guided MFK in getting and keeping its trademarks.
Beyond these big issues, you have been the organization’s day-to-day lawyer on matters that have included staying within the law in hiring and firing in the U.S. and Haiti; dealing with traffic accidents and accidental deaths in Haiti; advising on problems of alcoholism and drug abuse in MFK fellows in Haiti, employee deception, theft, and false credentials; demanding restitution from suppliers when MFK received tainted supplies, and dealing with Haitian lawyers and with the Haitian government.
Howard, you have made MFK a model of ethical economic development and gold-standard nutritional care in the Developing World.
The continued existence of MFK some days seems like a miracle. In large part its continuation and sustainable future is, in large part, owed to your guidance and generous offer of time at critical junctures over the years. You truly are the organization’s unpaid and essential “wise man.” I have known you for more than 35 years; I have never known you to seek recognition for this extraordinary activity or any of his other professional achievements. You just do what you think is the generous and the right thing to do.
You have been for Meds & Food for Kids – and for many of your regular clients – a true hero, a great model for the kind of servant-leaders and generous professionals that we hope lawyers and board members will be.
Mèsi anpil from several generations of Haitians and almost 20 years of MFK staff.
Pat and the MFK Family
The global malnutrition crisis is more present now than ever, especially in Haiti. The Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) has evaluated communities throughout Haiti, and determined many in the south, such as Cité Soleil, to be in a nutritional emergency. MFK has continued to partner with MSPP and donate thousands of boxes of Medika Mamba to save children in these locations from severe malnutrition. As the fight against malnutrition in Haiti carries on, MFK continues to collaborate with the MSPP and our partner clinics to save lives through our malnutrition programs.
One of the children who recently graduated from our malnutrition program is Berlanca. At 5 years old, Berlanca weighed only 18.2 LB. Berlanca's family is living at Bord de mer de Limonade (Seaside Limonade) where malnutrition levels are very high. Berlanca's mother stays at home to care for her 5 children, while Berlanca's father is a fisherman with a small income.
Berlanca was admitted to our partner clinic in Flamboyant, located in the Limonade community, for severe acute malnutrition. She spent 10 weeks in the outpatient malnutrition program. Upon graduation from the program, Berlanca weighed 22 LB. She looked healthier and happier. She now has the energy to play and enjoy her time with her family and friends which makes her mother very happy.
In collaboration with our partners, MFK is committed to continuing to provide care and Medika Mamba to save the lives of malnourished Haitian children. "We are grateful to MFK for the Medika Mamba donation which gives our child a second chance to survive and smile again,” added Berlanca’s parents.
On July 10th, 95 farmers crossed the stage to graduate from our farmer school program. We are so proud of all of them for their hard work throughout the 5 months of training. These farmers who graduated from the Meds & Food for Kids program now join the farmers’ network managed by the Agricultural team, becoming certified suppliers of peanuts to MFK for the production of therapeutic food products. The program is a win-win as it allows MFK to source more local peanuts, strengthening the local economy, while the farmers are now able to produce more peanuts, make more income, and have access to treat their own kids with MFK’s products.
The ceremony was held in the afternoon in the auditorium of the national school Dosmond (commune of Ouanaminthe.) Farmers came from their communities Savane Longue, Prevoyance, and Welch. Organized by MFK, the event is a continuity of the program by reinforcing the capacity of the planters in the Ouanaminthe areas. It was a beautiful moment together to recognize the hard work of these farmers. Farmers from each community wear a unique color at the time of the ceremony. The group from Savanne Longue wore red, the group from Prevoyance in white, and the group from Welch in yellow.
At 21 months old, Arsmterlin lived in the Fort Bourgeois community with his parents and his two older siblings, who are twins. He was breastfed for the first year of his life, and three months after weaning, he started to lose appetite and became weak. He occasionally would have to spend time in inpatient care in a private clinic for diarrhea and fever. Arsmterlin's condition gradually became more complicated with edema, a swelling caused by malnutrition.
Arsmterlin's mother was familiar with one of the MFK's clinic partners, the Fort Bourgeois clinic, located in the Cap-Haitien community. At one point, she had brought Arsmterlin’s older twin siblings there for malnutrition symptoms. At the clinic, she had been educated on many topics, including malnutrition prevention, and how to feed her children well. She knew they could assist with Arsmterlin’s situation and that the life of her baby could be saved.
Arsmterlin was screened for severe acute malnutrition at the Fort Bourgeois clinic in April, weighing just 16.9 LB. He was immediately admitted to the malnutrition treatment program. After only a week of Medika mamba treatment, everyone at the clinic noticed that Arsmterlin's face was completely changed.
In total, Arsmterlin spent 8 weeks in the outpatient clinic receiving Medika Mamba and loved the taste of the therapeutic food. He graduated from the malnutrition program at a healthier 20.5 LB and is now energetic and happy. Arsmterlin's family is thankful to MFK for donating this miracle Mamba product that has saved the lives of Haitian children, including their own baby.
"I don't have the words to explain my joy in seeing my baby’s face and health transformed, he is like a different boy thanks to MFK's Medika Mamba," says his mother, Adonise.
Antoine Clement graduated from MFK’s farmer training program in January 2022 and quickly became part of the Champions program. MFK’s Champions program provides individualized advice and financial and technical support throughout the growing season to assist farmers in implementing improved techniques to grow a higher quality and quantity of peanuts. The farmers also have the opportunity to sell their low-aflatoxin peanuts to MFK to use in our Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods.
Antoine is 69 years old and has been in farming since he was a young boy. He is from the third communal section of Ouanaminthe known as Savane Longue. The community is home to around 10,000 people, with agriculture being the main economic activity in the area. Antoine has lived his entire life in Savane Longue, and it’s in this community that he and his wife have raised all 10 of their children. With much pride, Antoine explains that he was able to educate all of his kids about agriculture.
In his gardens, Antoine grows cassava roots, pigeon beans, sugar cane, and plantains, but he considers peanuts his main crops. “Sometimes we plant other things to help us fight against hunger, but peanuts are the crop that helped me raise my 10 children,” he added. Haitian farmers often practice mixed gardens which consist of a variety of products so they always have food in their garden throughout the seasons.
When asked about his experience with the MFK training program, with Antoine told us “before the farmer training program I used to plant groundnuts in my own way, but afterward, I decided to follow the advice of the agronomists in order to produce more and sell my products to MFK.”
Antoine is very proud to be a farmer. Raising and educating 10 children with agriculture as the only source of income is not easy in Haiti. Though he has the support of his wife and children, he explains that his journey has been very long. He usually leaves their house to go out to the farm at 5 in the morning and does not get back until late in the afternoon.
While Antoine enjoys being a farmer, he also recognizes the challenges that he and other farmers face, which force many to abandon agriculture- shortage of rain, depleted soil, and not enough tools and resources. For him personally, it has been a challenge to have assistance in the field as all his children are now adults, and only a few want to follow in his footsteps in farming.
MFK has been working with Antoine in the Champions program and supports him in his agriculture activities. As part of the program, MFK makes many resources available to him such as a garden hoe, tarps, mesh bags, a machete, and, most importantly, a market for him to sell his crops. MFK is proud to work side by side with courageous farmers like Antoine.
Dear Friends,
No child should die of malnutrition. Yet one in five Haitian children is malnourished and one in fourteen will die before their fifth birthday. With 18 years of experience in Haiti, our team remains committed to joining hands with Haitian parents and caregivers to treat Haitian children like Brina. With your continued partnership, we can make sure every Haitian child receives the therapeutic food needed to reverse severe malnutrition and get a second chance to thrive.
Thank you for your continued investment in the future of Haiti.
Mesi Anpil,
Suzanne Langlois
Interim Chief Executive Officer
___________
I’ve had the privilege of serving as MFK’s Interim CEO for the past year, and will return to my position as a board member on July 1. Working side by side with our staff in Haiti, touring the lands of farmers who sell MFK their peanuts, sitting with moms holding their toddlers in malnutrition clinics - during these past 12 months I bore witness to stories that aren’t regularly told.
We hear one prevailing narrative about Haiti: It is a dangerous, troubled country.
But it is, of course, so much more.
It’s a place full of streetside entrepreneurs and moonlight drummers. A place where handpainted tap-taps share the road with racing motorbikes and market carts. A place whose many female farmers opt for skirts and flip flops in the fields. The stories behind these observations form just a few pages of a narrative that’s legion, untold to most of the world outside of Haiti.
I also learned a new story about MFK’s factory. Yes, it’s a powerhouse manufacturer of Medika Mamba. But it’s also a place that transcends transactional labor, a physical space that fosters a sense of family. It is a place where fun times, like Christmas Eve lunch and hymns, happen. And it’s a place where, in times of greatest distress, co-workers band together to help one another cope.
My heartfelt thanks go out to MFK’s board members for their faith in me, to our donors for their support of our mission, and to our staff and partners for sharing the stories of their lives with me. My year serving as the interim head of MFK is coming to an end, but my understanding of Haiti has only just begun.
From May 17th to May 25th, Suzanne Langlois, Interim CEO, and Remenson Tenor, Director of Manufacturing Operations, attended two strategic meetings in Rouen, France organized by Nutriset for the PlumpyField network partners.
The PlumpyField network includes the 11 independent producers who, like MFK, manufacture ready-to-use nutritional food, used for the treatment and prevention of malnutrition. MFK has been part of this network since 2010. Like MFK, most of these producers are located right in the countries where they are most needed: Sudan, Ethiopia, Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Fasso, Madagascar, and Guinea. By producing these products locally, we sustainably contribute to the social and economic development of our countries and to the fight against malnutrition.
Usually, the PlumpyField network organizes a yearly meeting for partners to focus on key challenges and define the strategic plan for the network’s coming year. However, due to the pandemic, the meeting has been postponed since 2019. Given that the network has not met for a very long time, we had two sessions. The first meeting was the market seminar in which all members came together to reflect on the current issues such as competition, new product development, the customers/clients’ needs/expectations, and global supply chain issues. The second meeting covered the network’s needs, challenges, and common issues that we are facing.
Thanks to MFK’s local manufacturing of Medika Mamba, children struggling with severe malnutrition in the Bahon community have received a second chance to thrive.
Eighteen-month-old Neisa had become sick with edema, a fever and a cough. Neisa’s family was very worried about her deteriorating health.
A neighbor advised Neisa's mother to take her to the local clinic for an examination. At the clinic, she was quickly referred to the malnutrition program. Neisa spent three weeks in inpatient care and an additional three weeks as an outpatient in Bahon's malnutrition program to take care of her illness.
Meds & Food for Kids agriculture team is currently testing 8 new high oleic peanuts varieties in Haiti. MFK partners with Nutriset’s Head of Innovation, Monique Chan Huot, and Professor Naveen Puppala from New Mexico State University to make this trial possible. The varieties were kindly provided by Prof. Naveen Puppala. We are currently looking into some high oleic peanuts in order to match CODEX specifications.
Peanuts are very nutritious with many known health benefits. The quality of edible peanuts is primarily due to the chemical composition of the oil, protein, and carbohydrates fractions of the seeds. In fact, High Oleic peanuts have different oil chemistry than regular peanuts.
Peanut oil chemistry is made up of 12 free fatty acids with only 3 of these being present in amounts exceeding 5%: palmitic, oleic, and linoleic. These free fatty acids comprise about 90% of the free fatty composition of the oil, with oleic and linoleic comprising about 81% + 2%.
High oleic peanuts exhibit improved characteristics of oil chemistry compared to normal oleic acid cultivars. High oleic peanuts have a lower iodine value which translates to increased oil stability and a higher ratio of unsaturated/saturated fatty acids. The main differences between a high oleic and a normal peanut are outlined in the included table.
This month we are celebrating the hard work of our amazing nutrition program nurses! May 12th was International Nurses Day, which commemorates the birth of modern nursing in the early 1800s. The day serves to highlight the important role nurses fulfill in health care. Meds & Food for Kids is grateful to all the nurses who take part in accomplishing its mission to decrease malnutrition and nourish Haitian children.
More than 20 nurses are currently working to prevent and treat malnutrition through MFK’s programs at partner clinics. MFK provides Medika Mamba to these programs and trains the nurses on skills and proper protocol to run the malnutrition programs in the clinics.
Yvane Louis (pictured left) is one of the Haitian nurses who has partnered with MFK's nutrition department. She has worked with our team since 2017 to treat malnourished children through a partner clinic that MFK supports. MFK is grateful to Yvane for the hard work and empathy she demonstrates in screening children for malnutrition, leading education sessions for parents to know how to feed their children and prevent malnutrition, and following the MSPP (Ministry of Public Health and Population) malnutrition protocol.
Yvane shared "I am grateful to MFK and for being a part in treating children and preventing malnutrition. Thanks to MFK, I have skills in managing malnutrition treatment. My experience teaches me that investing in malnutrition programs is the greatest thing we can do because we work on decreasing the levels of death in children due to malnutrition. Medika Mamba is a miracle treatment to save malnourished children's lives.”
MFK had been working for many months to prepare for the food safety and quality assurance audits. The FSSC (Food Safety System Certification) 22000 audit took place April 5-7, 2022 in Haiti. MFK’s key customers, UNICEF, WFP and MSF (the Interagency) have a combined quality assurance and food safety auditing arrangement. As one new part of the Interagency audit requirements, the Interagency has mandated that all suppliers of RUTF and RUSF must become FSSC 22000 certified in 2022. We were up for the challenge!
FSSC 22000, the certifying body, is based in the Netherlands; it is the innovation of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) to help improve food safety world-wide. MFK successfully passed the FSSC 22000 in early April and our auditor made the recommendation that we be certified. We received our FSSC 22000 Certificate on May 17, 2022. The FSSC 22000 standard builds on our previous ISO 22000:2018 certification but is a more challenging certification, with even higher standards and additional requirements. The team in Haiti worked very hard to ensure that we were well-prepared for this audit. All key managers at our Cap-Haitien facility are part of the Food Safety Management Team, and this success was a wonderful example of what this talented team can accomplish. Just as a point of reference, of the 10Nutriset’s PlumpyField partner organizations located in the developing world, only four (counting MFK) have achieved FSSC 22000 to date.
In 2018, Meds & Food for Kids embarked on a journey to achieve certification of the International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO) 22000 standards. After many months of hard work and an intense two-day audit of our management systems, MFK was granted certification in ISO 22000:2005 on March 20, 2019. MFK was one of the first food processing facilities in Haiti to achieve this certification.
ISO is a worldwide federation of national standards. Through its members, it brings together experts to share knowledge and develop voluntary, consensus-based, market-relevant international standards which support innovation and provide solutions to global challenges. Certification can be a useful tool to add credibility by demonstrating that a product or service meets the expectations of your customers. For some industries, certification is a legal or contractual requirement. MFK’s largest customer, UNICEF, had strongly encouraged its suppliers to become certified.
Gaining certification was just the beginning of our journey; the ISO 22000:2005 certificate was valid for three years, but the independent auditors must conduct an update audit each year for the certification to remain in place. In 2020, MFK’s update audit was scheduled for March 18-19 at our facility in Haiti. The auditors, based at a consulting firm in Mexico City, Mexico, were unable to travel to Haiti, due to security in Haiti as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. Again in 2021, travel restrictions from the pandemic made it impossible to audit our facility in person. But we finished off the third year’s audit with flying colors.
Dear Friends,
When Marie, Jacques, Sonia, Samson and 55 other farmers graduated from our training program last season, we were celebrating much more than their hard work during the semester. We were celebrating their future, one with healthier, more abundant harvests, and more income for their families. We were celebrating the future of Meds & Food for Kids, one with dozens more Haitian farmers who can sell us peanuts to make our life saving products. And we were celebrating you, our donors, whose support makes all this progress happen.
If ever there was a year that demonstrated the effectiveness of our programs, 2021 was it. With supply chain disruptions, we relied more than ever on local farmers for our key ingredients. The assassination of Haiti’s president in July and its ensuing civil unrest, followed by an earthquake in August, meant more families lacked stability and reliable sources of food. MFK responded, producing and distributing our nutritious food to infants, school children, mothers, and families throughout the country.
MFK exists because of times like these.
Our donors have rallied around our Solution Soleil capital campaign, funding our future with solar energy, replacing our reliance on diesel fuel. Thank you! Our factory staff continued their diligent work in production, quality, maintenance and administration, keeping our machines running while managing the pandemic protocols that have kept our workforce safe going on 2 years now. And our nutrition team pressed on, ensuring our programs were running efficiently and effectively; providing consultation and our therapeutic foods to partner clinics, orphanages and schools. Kenbe la!
We continue to build on the foundation that Dr. Pat Wolff, MFK’s founder, established 18 years ago, serving Haiti’s most vulnerable population while building economic capacity in Haiti for sustainable change.
As we review our past year, we must recognize that growth happens despite the surrounding darkness, and sometimes because of it. Like the peanut seeds that Marie, Jacques, Sonia and Samson plant in the dirt: they will be nurtured, they will push toward the sunlight, and they will grow.
Mèsi Anpil,
Suzanne Langlois
Interim Chief Executive Officer
Meds & Food for Kids is participating in Give STL Day tomorrow, May 5th!
Give STL Day, powered by the St. Louis Community Foundation, is a 24-hour, online day-of-giving event, designed to ignite the spirit of giving across the region. Since its inception in 2014, Give STL Day has raised over $22 million for more than 1,000 regional nonprofits.
This year, MFK 's goal is to raise $5,000 for our Medika Mamba malnutrition program. Medika Mamba is needed to treat children with severe acute malnutrition on an outpatient basis within clinic follow-up every week.
This year, with your help, we are committed to make Give STL Day even more successful.
Donations towards our goal on this giving day will only be through the Give STL Day website. The designated website makes giving easy, safe and fun. When you donate online through the Give STL Day website during a “Power Hour,” your gift is lifted as MFK will receive a portion of a $20,000 hourly prize pool! The power hours are:
You can also help us meet our $5,000 goal by spreading the word to friends! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and share our updates to help us raise the funds we need to save the lives of children in Haiti.
Visit the Give STL Day website for additional details, and don’t forget to give on May 5th to help us treat more malnourished children.
We are ready for an exciting day of giving and hope you are, too!
Thank you for your support,
The Meds & Food for Kids Team
Meds & Food for Kids (MFK) has announced plans to install a solar panel system to replace 70% of electric power for its Cap-Haitien, Haiti factory.
In 2018, MFK installed new machinery to quadruple capacity, lower costs, and gain a greater share of the global RUTF market. Since then, diesel shortages and political unrest have disrupted production, causing a 13-day factory shutdown and a four-month partial shutdown. These interruptions resulted in 23,000 fewer malnourished children receiving treatment in Haiti and globally, and 26,000 fewer anemic Haitian school children receiving treatment.
Following consultation with energy experts and determining solar power is the way forward for the factory, MFK has worked with WestGen, WSP and RTM Engineering Consultants to overhaul the current electrical infrastructure and design a solar photovoltaic system that will be able to provide up to 70% of MFK’s electrical needs. The conversion to solar power will enable MFK to reduce the factory’s dependence on diesel, extend the life of existing generators and solve regional issues such as pollution, noise, and night/weekend power needs. It will also solidify MFK’s reputation as a secure and dependable supplier within the humanitarian community.
This investment will reduce operational costs by $85,000 annually, and increase production by 20 metric tons, allowing MFK to serve 1,800 additional children per year. The payback period for the project is expected to be less than five years and will be able to reduce carbon emissions by more than 400 metric tons per year.
Initial funding of this important project has been made possible by contributions from many generous donors to the Solution Soleil capital campaign.
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Founded in 2003, Meds & Food for Kids (MFK) is dedicated to meeting the essential nutritional needs of malnourished children, pregnant and nursing women, and school children using Ready-to-Use Foods (RUFs) produced in its factory in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. By transferring skills and knowledge to Haitian employees and buying peanuts from Haitian farmers, MFK breaks the cycle of poverty and sustainably stimulates economic development. MFK is a U.S. non-profit 501(c)(3) social enterprise and a registered Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in Haiti.
Meds & Food for Kids’ farmer training session for the 2022 spring season has officially begun. The goal of the program is to disseminate information on best practices for peanut production to local farmers in order to improve their livelihoods. MFK’s training consists of a mixture of focus group discussions and technical in-field activities. This season, another community will be added back per the request of local farmers in the community. The training will now be held in three locations: Welsh, Savane Longue, and Prevoyance.
Welsh is a small community located in Capotille and home to a couple thousand people. This is MFK’s second training group in this community. They have a total of 35 participants, with 24 women and 11 men. This is a very encouraging turnout, especially for the women in the rural communities.
Savane Longue is another small community that will host training sessions. MFK has been hosting trainings in community for over 5 years, and it always amazes us how motivated the community members are to participate. They have a total of 36 participants, 22 women and 14 men.
In honor of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month in March, the Meds & Food for Kids nutrition team recognizes the women who make our programs possible. MFK is grateful for the collaboration of our many partners and their teams of strong women– health agents, nurses, and doctors. These women are committed to fighting for the health of the most vulnerable children and women in Haiti, giving them hope for their future.
Health agents help with outreach to find children who would benefit from our programs, and nurses screen children for malnutrition and help enroll them in the program. Daily, they educate parents on treatment and nutrition, take measurements, record weight, and distribute MFK’s Ready-to-Use-Therapeutic Food products according to treatment plans.
One of the women MFK is grateful to partner with is Rose, a nurse at the Bahon clinic malnutrition program. Many years ago, Rose joined with MFK’s nutrition department to collaborate on preventing and treating malnutrition. Every day she fights for the health of the children in the Bahon community, working to decrease malnutrition levels and save more malnourished kids. Rose says "I am happy to be part of this incredible work and hope we will have a new Haiti where the level of malnutrition decreases."
Meds & Food for Kids’ strong financial health and commitment to accountability and transparency has once again earned a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, America’s largest independent charity evaluator. This is the ninth consecutive year that Meds & Food for Kids has earned this top distinction. Only 5% of the charities evaluated by Charity Navigator have received at least 9 consecutive 4-star evaluations.
Since 2002, using objective analysis, Charity Navigator has awarded only the most fiscally responsible organizations a 4-star rating. In 2011, Charity Navigator added 17 metrics, focused on governance and ethical practices as well as measures of openness, to its ratings methodology. These Accountability & Transparency metrics, which account for 50 percent of a charity’s overall rating, reveal which charities operate in accordance with industry best practices and whether they are open with their donors and stakeholders. On June 1, 2016, Charity Navigator upgraded its methodology for rating each charity’s financial health with CN 2.1. These enhancements further substantiate the financial health of charities awarded a four-star rating.
In a letter to MFK, Charity Navigator President Michael Thatcher wrote, “ We are proud to announce Meds & Food for Kids has earned our ninth consecutive 4-star rating. This is our highest possible rating and indicates that your organization adheres to sector best practices and executes its mission in a financially efficient way. Attaining a 4-star rating verifies that Meds & Food for Kids exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in your area of work …This exceptional designation from Charity Navigator sets Meds & Food for Kids apart from its peers and demonstrates to the public its trustworthiness.”
Meds & Food for Kids a received perfect score on several measures that go into the four-star rating, among them Governance, Transparency, Program Expenses, Fundraising Efficiency. MFK’s rating and other information about charitable giving are available on www.charitynavigator.org
About Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator, www.charitynavigator.org, is the largest charity evaluator in America and its website attracts more visitors than all other charity rating groups combined. The organization helps guide intelligent giving by evaluating the Financial Health and Accountability & Transparency of more than 8,000 charities. Charity Navigator accepts no advertising or donations from the organizations it evaluates, ensuring unbiased evaluations, nor does it charge the public for this trusted data. As a result, Charity Navigator, a 501 (c) (3) public charity itself, depends on support from individuals, corporations, and foundations that believe it provides a much-needed service to America's charitable givers.
Brenus Charles is a community leader in a small town called Welsh. Welsh is home to about one thousand people and is located 25 minutes from Ouanaminthe. Agriculture is the main activity for this small village that neighbors the small-town of Dajabon in the Dominican Republic. Peanuts, corn, cassava roots, beans are the primary crops grown in the area. The village is green, breezy, and quiet. This beautiful community is home to Brenus, who lives there with his wife and his two children. He learned about the Meds & Food for Kids’ farmer training program through a friend in Savane Longue, where MFK has trained peanut farmers for almost a decade.
Brenus decided to join the farmer training in 2020, commuting on his motorcycle for 30 minutes weekly to participate in the training in a community out of town. When asked why he wanted to attend the MFK training, Brenus smiled and said: “I am always looking to learn new things and new techniques. I am a farmer and I grew up seeing my father and my mother doing the same thing. With that, they were able to educate me, and I am the only one in my family who can read. I wanted to follow in their footsteps and at the same time learn new techniques.” He added that he is very happy to be part of MFK’s farmer network because not only he was able to get on trained on a wide variety of topics, but he was also given an opportunity to sell his products to MFK .
Brenus and his wife, who also graduated from the MFK training program, manage 3 small farms to provide for their family. The couple says that they harvest close to 1,000 kg of peanuts each season from their 6 acres total of land, and are proud suppliers to MFK.
At seven months old, Wesly weighed just 10.7 LB and had edema, skin lesions, and a fever. After several appointments in private clinics, Wesly's condition only worsened. A neighbor advised his mother to take him to a clinic with a malnutrition program for evaluation.
Wesly was admitted into the program to be treated for severe acute malnutrition with complications. He spent two weeks in inpatient care at an MFK partner to receive treatment for the illnesses he was battling in addition to malnutrition and then completed twelve additional weeks of outpatient Medika Mamba treatment at a local clinic close to his home. Wesly graduated from the malnutrition program at a healthier weight of 15.4 LB. Wesly seemed like a new child to his mother, finally having the strength and energy to play with his family.
Wesly’s mother doesn’t have the exact words to thank everyone who played a part in saving her baby's life, but she is grateful for her son’s second chance.. ", She has also benefited from the nutrition education that she received while Wesly was in treatment.
Meds & Food for Kids' 2022 program videos are live now on our YouTube channel!
Special thanks to Kevin FitzGerald and Charles Thomas.
Dear Friends,
Thank you for attending Meds & Foods for Kids’ RaRa! The Strength and Spirit of Haiti Virtual Gala on February 19th. We are blown away by your generosity—you helped us raise $361,019 to support our programs in Haiti!
Chapo ba pou nou! Hats off to you!
We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with you. You made RaRa a true celebration.
On behalf of all of us at MFK, I’d like to reiterate our deepest gratitude to our Gala Sponsors and supporters. Your generosity enables us to serve undernourished children and mothers; to buy high-quality peanuts from smallholder farmers, and to provide jobs and opportunities to skilled women and men in Haiti.
Although the event is over, we are still fundraising to reach our Gala goal of $500,000. If you were unable to attend, but would like to support the event, please donating on our website. No amount is too small! We also invite you to enjoy the presentation from Saturday, linked below and posted on our YouTube channel.
As we said in our concluding video, “We have learned that in the space between adversity and real change lies perseverance and hard work.” It is only with your support that we are able to carry on our work investing in the future of Haiti.
Mèsi Anpil,
Suzanne Langlois
Interim CEO
Since 1804, the Haitian people have been celebrating the proclamation of the end of slavery in Haiti on January 1st. Haiti was the first black republic in the world, and the first country to abolish slavery in the Western Hemisphere. Haitians all over the world celebrate this great victory every year.
Many families organize a special party and invite all family members who are living all over Haiti to come for the holiday. To prepare for the celebration, they make special foods like soup joumou and meat with cassava, and also share their hopes for the New Year. All of the celebrations are to thank our heroes for having sacrificed during the fight for independence.
As 2022 begins, we reflect on the past year in Haiti and continue to be hopeful for the year ahead. The daily situation in Haiti is not easy – our economy, the state of sanitation, and politics are all complicated. But through it all, the MFK team continues to care for the health of mothers and children through our nutritionprograms, thanks to our generous donors.
One of the women enrolled in MFK's prenatal supplementation program in the Madeline area is Marie-Mercie. She is 30 years old, and a mother of one child. Marie-Mercie was enrolled in the MFK prenatal supplementation program when she was almost five months pregnant, to help her baby grow during pregnancy.
Marie-Mercie is continuing her supplementation and eating 2 sachets of Plumpy'Doz every day which gives her the calories and vitamins needed for her baby’s development. "I am now in my 35th week of pregnancy and looking forward to seeing my baby bornat a normal weight thanks to MFK's product," added Marie-Mercie.
Marie-Mercie is grateful to all of the people who have played a part in this supplementation program and looks forward to continuing with Plumpy'Doz during her nursing period, which will be great for her baby’s development.
MFK is proud to announce that 59 farmers have graduated from our Farmer Training program and joined our farmer network on January 30th. These farmers from the northeast of Haiti completed 5 months of training and workshops, taking place from August 2021 to January 2022. The training program covers a wide variety of topics which include soil preparation, peanut disease, soil conservation, drying and storage, and irrigation. The main objective of the program is to provide the basic training to equip peanut farmers to increase their production and produce better quality peanuts.
The graduation ceremony was held in Ouanaminthe. It was a great time for the farmers, their guests, and government representatives who attended to recognize the hard work these resilient farmers. In his short talk, MFK Agronomist and Agricultural Program Manager, James Blanc, encouraged the graduates to become disciples in applying the methodologies learned during their 5 months of training. He reassured the graduates that MFK will always be by their side to support them. “MFK will always be in these communities. It’s the end of the training, not the end of MFK’s relationship with you because MFK already considers you as 59 new members of the MFK’s farmer network,” Blanc concluded.
Most Haitians would describe 2021 as filled with fear, political unrest, and crisis. Even so, Haitians celebrated the holiday season with feelings of joy, love, peace, reconciliation after a difficult year. Our nutrition team was hard at work during the season caring for the most vulnerable– those who are sick and suffering from malnutrition.
MFK’s mission to decrease the malnutrition level in Haiti is in part accomplished by training nurses and health agents on tools for running malnutrition programs, and keeping them up-to-date on current medical knowledge. In December, twelve healthcare workers took part in an education session. It was a great time– we discussed MSPP (Ministry of Public Health and Population of Haiti) malnutrition protocol, proper techniques for weighing and measuring children seeking treatment, and malnutrition treatment procedures.
One child treated by an MFK-trained nurse in our malnutrition program this winter was Maya. At 10 months old, Maya became very sick, and her mother brought her to the Plaine-du-Nord region to seek help. After several unsuccessful medical appointments, Maya's health continued to worsen. One nurse at New Hope Hospital, one of MFK's malnutrition clinic partners located in Plaine-du-Nord, met her mother and advised her to bring Maya for malnutrition screening.
Dear Friends,
Civil unrest, earthquakes, political tumult, and the COVID-19 pandemic made 2021 a tough year in Haiti. In MFK’s 18 years on the ground in Cap-Haitien, however, tough times have come and gone. Despite many complex challenges, MFK’s staff, volunteers, and partners have nevertheless carried on, improving the lives of the many people we touch. We could not do this without your generosity.
Because of your generosity, In 2021 we were able to:
In the upcoming year, we will continue to navigate our mission activities in the safest way possible while the country grapples with unrest and diesel shortages. Clinics that experienced a decrease in attendance due to COVID-19 restrictions in 2021 are now serving more children due to the economic impact of the pandemic on families. Partner schools will continue to provide our Vita Mamba snack to their students – the only sustenance many of these children receive to fuel them for the entire day.
Our farmer training takes place in small groups to ensure social distancing and effective instruction throughout the growing season. Our team is adaptable and up to the challenge, but we cannot do this work without the support of our generous donors and friends.
Your donations directly improve the lives of many Haitians, first and foremost saving children from suffering and death due to malnutrition. But your donations also prevent malnutrition, by sustaining jobs for the women and men who work in our factory producing MFK’s line of life-saving therapeutic foods. Your support allows MFK to continue our work with Haiti’s smallholder farmers with ongoing education that increases healthy peanut yields, enabling MFK to purchase local peanuts and, in turn, increase farmers’ income.
Your gift will enable us to continue making a difference in the lives of Haitian children and families today, despite the turmoil that surrounds us. Your support today will make a difference for a lifetime.
Thank you for your continued support of this mission. We wish you and yours a joyful and healthy New Year.
Mesi Anpil,
Suzanne Langlois
Interim Chief Executive Officer
Christmas is here!
Christmas is celebrated all over the world, including Haiti. This holiday season is special for most Haitians. Even the less fortunate celebrate with the little resources they have. Haitians celebrate by decorating their houses and Christmas trees, eating cake and drinking kremas (a special Haitian drink), going to midnight mass, staying up all night and going to midnight mass, and eating pumpkin soup on New Year’s Day.
Christmas is celebrated in the big cities, and also in the small communities and villages where MFK works with peanut farmers. It’s been a very difficult year for all Haitians in Haiti with many crises, but when Christmas arrives, it’s another spirit. People are getting ready to celebrate and are thankful for another holiday season.
The MFK Farmer training program will take a break during this moment and will resume in early January of 2022. We would like to thank all of MFK’s peanut farmers for a very fruitful year. These farmers work hard year-round to provide peanuts to the factory to produce our peanut butter medicines, and more importantly, these farmers are working to have meals available on everyone’s table during the Holiday. Without the hard work of these farmers, many holiday traditions in their families could not be possible.
A lot happened this year within our Agriculture program! Despite all the constraints this year, Haitian peanut farmers were able to provide approximately 100 metric tons of peanuts, which is a record for MFK’s farmer network. MFK was also able to train 45 farmers and indirectly impact another 200 farmers throughout the year in 2021. MFK Ag is also working closely with local universities to provide valuable internships to young professionals throughout the year, with 10 students spending time and gaining valuable experience with MFK. Three imported peanuts varieties were selected by MFK after experimenting with small plots of different varieties will be introduced. Our mission for 2022 does not change– we would like to keep reaching out to the peanut farmers in the most secluded places to train them so they can provide not only better quality of peanuts, but increase their production systematically. We will lead awareness campaigns against aflatoxins in the communities, support agricultural students and universities, and help farmers with access to tools and resources.
Everything we accomplished this year would not have been possible without the help of so many generous people. On behalf of MFK, we thank all of our donors who contribute to making our different programs succeed. You may not realize this, but your generosity is making a large impact on the lives of Haitian farmers. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Help us make the Meds & Food for Kids virtual gala a big success! On February 19, 2022, gather a group of friends, family, co-workers, or community members in the comfort of your home for an unforgettable evening celebrating the work of MFK.
A watch party is a gathering of your friends and family, anywhere from 4–10 people, either at your home or via Zoom. Prior to the 6:30 PM (CST) start time of our virtual gala, we invite you to gather to watch the event and introduce your loved ones to the work of MFK.
During these challenging times, some people are still understandably hesitant to have gatherings in their homes. If you do have an in-person watch party, make sure to follow all local and state COVID restrictions. You can also decide to meet online with your friends! Free online platforms like Zoom or Skype allow you to virtually host your friends before the event starts or after the program concludes. Your guests can use their smartphones, tablets, or computers to be part of your virtual watch party.
1. Register on our website to be a Gala watch party host. There will be two options for participation:
a. $100 Party Pack: We will send you everything you need to host your party, including decorations, tablescape, game cards + more!
b. Free DIY option: receive our digital watch party planning toolkit with an event agenda, invitation template, program, and hosting tips for a seamless digital experience.
2. Optional: Plan a fun dinner and a theme for the evening (e.g., Haitian rum tasting, Rara festival night, e.g...).
3. Tune into our Gala Live Stream on Saturday, February 19th, and enjoy a wonderful evening we have planned for you and your guests.
4. Invite your friends and family to watch the MFK 2022 Gala on February 19th, 2022.
If you are choosing to host a small gathering in your home, we recommend inviting four to ten friends to be your guests – think, your table guests. If you host in person, you will watch the virtual event from one Zoom portal. Social gatherings are always nice, but with these watch parties, you can take it to the next step and share your passion for MFK and why you’re encouraging your friends to be a part of the event with you. We would love for guests to participate in the event any way they can, by donating or just learning more about MFK overall.
To learn more about our 2022 Virtual Gala, Rara: The Strength and Spirit of Haiti and RSVP for the event go to www.mfkhaiti.org/events
To register to host, sign up here by February 1, 2022.
Haitian peanut farmers, including the MFK farmers’ network, face a number of constraints and challenges that greatly impact their production and revenue. As part of the MFK training program, farmers have training sessions to learn about the benefits of keeping records of expenses and benefits and compare the way agriculture is managed in Haiti and other countries. The most recent session on these topics took place in late November.
In the training session, the group discussed how Haitian peanut farmers harvest more than two times less on the same amount of land when compared to peanut farmers in other countries-- this is due to productivity and the price of peanuts, which tend to be higher in Haiti. They also explored the findings of several reports from the last decade which claim that a US peanut farmer harvests approximately 1,440 kg in ¼ carreau (equivalent to ¾ of an acre,) farmers in China harvest 1,344 kg, and farmers in Ghana harvest 576 kg, while Haitian farmers only harvest 192 kg for the same amount of land.
Why the large difference? During the lesson, we opened the floor to both the participants in the farmer training and the MFK agronomists to share why they think the gap between US farmers and Haitian is that drastic.
Many of the participants claim that the use of traditional techniques and outdated tools, manual agriculture, and non-motorized mechanical methods are the primary reason. They are so limited manually that they can’t compete with other farmers. Another reason the participants pointed out is that there is no agricultural insurance or loans, and with the type of government that you have in Haiti, they do not subsidize anything for the farmers.
November 20th is World Children's Day. All over the globe in rural areas and big cities alike, this special day will be observed by sharing love, health, food, assistance, and more to the youngest generation. It is also a time intended to raise awareness for less fortunate children worldwide, promoting international solidarity and striving to improve the welfare of children in need.
MFK is always working to treat and feed Haitian children and women thanks to our devoted donors. In celebrating worldwide children's day, MFK is continually grateful for the tremendous generosity which helps us fight to decrease malnutrition levels and continue to provide treatment to Haitian children through our programs.
MFK is proud to celebrate and honor Haitian children especially, those who are enrolled in our malnutrition program. While Haiti is still facing deep political crises, social and economic situations, we continue to assist the vulnerable children who are the most affected. As a Haitian proverb says, " timoun jodi granmoun demen'' (child of today, citizen tomorrow). MFK will continue to stand with them as they are the country's future.
One of those children who are the future of Haiti is Jean Kerry. When Jean Kerry was 12 months old, he was treated for severe malnutrition at the CHIDA hospital, one of the MFK's partners. CHIDA is located in the Balan community (Plaine-du-Nord) in northern Haiti. Jean was living with his parents, Louis and Jean Jerry. Jean Kerry was born in October of 2020 at Justinien Hospital. Unfortunately, Jean Kerry was not able to be fed with the mother's milk because he refused it at the time. At six months old, Jean Kerry became sick and lost a significant amount of weight due to malnourishment.
Facebook fundraisers are an easy, free way to spread the word about MFK and allow your network to give to a cause you care about. An added benefit is that 100% of donations to nonprofits made through Facebook's platform go directly to the organization being supported. Facebook covers all fees and does not charge nonprofits for processing donations.
The easiest way to set up a fundraiser is using MFK’s direct fundraiser link:
www.facebook.com/fund/mfkhaiti
Alternatively, you can navigate to set up a fundraiser from your Facebook home page:
As part of our agriculture program, MFK provides opportunities for young graduates in Haiti to gain tangible experience in the agronomy field. For the next few months, our intern Moncito will be learning about our research method, farmer training, peanut purchases, and more. We are grateful to have him as part of the team!
Meet Moncito Gachette:
What did you study, and what school did you go to, and when did you graduate?
Agronomy, UPH (Université Polyvalent d’Haiti), I graduated in 2017.
Why did you choose Agronomy as a career choice?
I chose agronomy as a career because I love agriculture. It was my childhood dream because I used to help my grandfather with his farm chores when I was a child.
Why did you choose MFK for your internship?
I chose MFK for my internship because I want to have more knowledge about peanuts and to have more experience.
How did you hear about MFK? What do you know about MFK?
I heard about MFK on social media and via friends. MFK is an NGO which involves peanuts. Meds & Food for Kids is an independent non-profit established in 2003 with the mission to prevent and treat malnutrition in Haiti through the local production and distribution of nutritious foods.
How is your experience so far?
Until now everything’s gone well, I have participated in all things with the Agricultural Manager. I already know how to make a test of aflatoxin. My experience so far is amazing.
What are your goals for the next the 3 years?
Work at MFK, become a businessman.
What’s one specific goal during your time at MFK?
Have more knowledge about peanuts.
Favorite subject in College? Why?
Soil conservation. I lived in Cap-Haïtien during my university studies, it was bad to see how each time the rain fell, we could see the landslide through the hills. And I knew that without soil conservation we will face erosion. The alarming situation of the land in Haiti hasd given me more desire to focus on soil conservation as best as I can.
Favorite food?
Rice and beans
Favorite Hobby?
Reading, watching soccer and listening to music.
Mark your calendars to join the MFK team and our host, Jeff Civillico, on February 19, 2022 at 6:30 PM (CST) for an exciting evening of updates on our work and plans for the future. We are deeply grateful for the partnership of our donors and friends who make our mission possible.
What is rara? Rara is a form of festival music that originated in the late 1700s for street processions that took place as a reminder to the Haitian people that no matter how difficult their current situation was, there were still reasons to be grateful. In order to gain independence, Haitian slaves fought literally during the Haitian Revolution and culturally, through art, music and dance forms. The Rara tradition is still alive and well in Haiti, and continues to represent the strength and spirit of the country.
Please visit our event page to get more information, view sponsorship opportunities, and RSVP!
Can't make the gala, but still want to help us reach our $500,000 fundraising goal? Donate online!
MFK is celebrating the new year-- fiscal new year, that is. Like many organizations, our fiscal year runs from October to September. With the start of each year comes evaluations on the previous year and setting goals for the next. MFK is committed to investing in the achievement of its mission and vision by saving the lives of vulnerable people while producing Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) and supplementation products every single day. Thanks to generous donations, MFK clinic partners have saved the lives of many children and mothers throughout Haiti during a particularly difficult year. We are very thankful to everyone who contributed to achieving our mission over the past year and hope in the next we will only continue to reduce the level of malnutrition in Haiti. MFK will continue to produce and distribute Mamba Janm and Medika Mamba to prevent and treat children and mothers, and train more medical teams on the malnutrition protocol of the Ministry of Public Health and Population of Haiti (MSPP).
MFK supports seventeen local clinics by providing and delivering products for programs each week. In the past year, MFK's Nurse Educator trained a total of sixty-one nurses and health agents to assure the malnutrition and nursing supplementation programs were able to provide the best care possible. These education sessions give knowledge and skills for those who attended to be confident in their care while working in accordance with the malnutrition protocol of the Ministry of Public Health and Population of Haiti (MSPP). Meds & Food for Kids is very grateful for the work done by the nurses from partner clinics over the past year.
Phedeline Bien-Aimé is a registered nurse at the Pro-Famille clinic, one of the partner clinics located in the Fort St-Michel area. Phedeline has been engaged in the fight against malnutrition since March 2019. When she started in the program it was almost non-existent, but thanks to her work plan it became very successful in the Fort St-Michel area. At the time she started with the clinic there was only one child actively in the program, but in just one month she had admitted more than fifty moderate and severely malnourished children to the program. Every week, Phedeline goes to Fort St-Michel areas, specifically near the sea where there are many malnourished children. Every Friday, the day parents have appointments in the clinic, and she organizes an education session on nutritional topics which are very important in preventing malnutrition and diseases due to malnutrition.
''Thanks to MFK, I have knowledge and skills in the MSPP malnutrition protocol which makes me very happy. It's a very great experience for my nursing career. I was so excited to attend the day so I could be trained by MFK's nutrition department before starting this amazing role in saving desperately hungry and sick children with MFK's Medika Mamba. It was my first experience running the malnutrition program. It's my dream to take part in this great fight against malnutrition in my country. Before starting, I visited and spoke with the families and invited them to the clinics for screening. I am enjoying seeing malnourished children saved from malnutrition after receiving Medika Mamba. Thanks to MFK, malnourished children in the Fort St. Michel area will have a second chance to survive while hoping that partnership will be in the future" Phedeline shared.
Thomas Baptiste graduated from MFK’s Farmer Training Program in July 2021. Speaking for all participants during the graduation, Mr. Baptiste said: “We learned a lot of new things during the program, and there are things that we used to do that we will never do the same way again.”
Mr. Baptiste is 67 years old and has been doing farming activities since he was 19. “I have to say that farming is a family thing, I was born and raised in the countryside, growing up seeing my parents doing the same activities to feed me and my siblings,” he said.
Mr. Baptiste is from a small community in the area of Ouanaminthe, right on the border of the Dominican Republic, called Savane Longue. Savane Longue is home to less than 10,000 people, with agriculture as the main economic activity in the area, it is a beautiful small community located in the northeast region of Haiti. Mr. Baptiste has lived there for his whole life, where he also raised his 5 children (all boys) with his wife. “Here in Savane Longue, we cultivate different crops such as plantain, sugar cane, cassava roots, beans, sweet potatoes but peanuts remain the crops we get much revenue from,” Mr. Baptiste said. “I raised all five of my children with money generated from farming activities, farming is my life,” he added.
In the past, Haiti was called "the pearl of the West Indies''. Now, Haiti is classified among the poorest countries in the world due to deep political crises, social, and economic situations. Just this past year the country has dealt with political unrest, earthquakes, the assassination of the president, and COVID-19 which impacted the population and their health. These are affecting all Haitians and more specifically children between 6 months to 5 years old. Pregnant and lactating women are also greatly impacted, resulting in more cases of malnutrition and death among expecting mothers.
There are many organizations that are working in Haiti, and as cases of severe and acute malnutrition continue to rise, Meds & Food for Kids stays committed to stand by the most vulnerable group-- children, pregnant women, and breastfeeding women. In January 2020, through the SMART nutritional survey, the Ministry of Public Health and Population of Haiti (MSPP) noticed that the rate of acute malnutrition has increased from 4% to 6%. After the last earthquakes occurred in the southern peninsula of Haiti on August 14, 2021, we can predict that the Haitian malnutrition level is susceptible to continue to increase.
MFK is involved in producing life-saving products in our factory in Quartier Morin, a community in northern Haiti, for feeding pregnant and nursing women, treating malnourished children, and others who are nutritionally vulnerable. MFK's work within the malnutrition programs is also dedicated to supporting clinic partners and MSPP as much as possible. After the devastating earthquakes in the southern peninsula, MFK is involved in supporting the Ministry of Public Health and Population of Haiti (MSPP) with Plumpy Doz (Mamba Janm) and Medika Mamba to prevent and treat malnutrition for those in need.
On September 1st, 2021, MFK's nutrition department trained ten nurses and health agents to ensure the pregnant and breastfeeding women enrolled in the supplementation program are set up for success. It was a great moment. We discussed the supplementation protocol, the essential nutritional needs, before, during and the lactating period, weight control, PB, blood pressure, eclampsia, and the other topics that are very important to a mother’s health. There are currently 6 clinic partners are enrolled in MFK’s Prenatal Supplementation Program, and we hope we will be able to have the additional clinics next year to prevent malnutrition in other areas. In just one week, we have enrolled more than 250 pregnant and nursing women in the program, and we will continue this amazing work to save more babies from malnutrition, from conception through the first 6 months.
One of the women enrolled in MFK's Prenatal Supplementation Program in the Fort Bourgeois-ULS clinic is Annite. (pictured in post.) She is 32 years old, and a mother of 5 who lives with her husband and children in the Fort Bourgeois community of Cap-Haitian. She was admitted to the program to receive Mamba Janm, also called Plumpy Doz, during the pregnancy period. Annite delivered a beautiful baby girl healthy. In only 20 days post-delivery, her baby girl weighed a healthy 8.8lbs. She is able to breastfeed while eating Mamba Janm every day with her usual home food.
"Being admitted to the program and receiving Mamba Janm is very helpful for my baby and me because every day I am sure to have something to eat before lunch. This food gives me strength and contributes to my daily vitamins that are very important for my baby's health. I really like the taste. I believe that my baby will grow up healthy while I am eating Mamba Janm every day. Thanks to MFK's Mamba Janm, the pregnant women in the Fort Bourgeois area will prevent malnutrition and give birth to healthy babies", Annite says.
Every day in Haiti the Meds & Food for Kids staff and malnutrition program partners work hard to accomplish MFK's goals. They are always working to help malnourished children by distributing our therapeutic foods to prevent and treat acute malnutrition; Medika Mamba, Mamba Janm, and other health nutritional products for saving lives.
"In the Bahon community at the health agent’s clinic, we hope that all of our malnourished children will be saved with this miracle product which is called Medika Mamba,'' says one of Bahon's health agents, Cyliac. "Sometimes we do not go out to invite them to come for screening of the malnutrition, but the people hear about us and just decide to come on their own with their children. For example, one child, Nelson, came with his grandmother to spend time at Danita's Children because she realized that her child’s health was complicated with a severe acute malnutrition," Cyliac continue.
Meds & Food for Kids’ strong financial health and commitment to accountability and transparency has once again earned a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, America’s largest independent charity evaluator. This is the 8th consecutive year that Meds & Food for Kids has earned this top distinction. Only 6% of the charities evaluated by Charity Navigator have received at least 8 consecutive 4-star evaluations.
Since 2002, using objective analysis, Charity Navigator has awarded only the most fiscally responsible organizations a 4-star rating. In 2011, Charity Navigator added 17 metrics, focused on governance and ethical practices as well as measures of openness, to its ratings methodology. These Accountability & Transparency metrics, which account for 50 percent of a charity’s overall rating, reveal which charities operate in accordance with industry best practices and whether they are open with their donors and stakeholders. On June 1, 2016, Charity Navigator upgraded its methodology for rating each charity’s financial health with CN 2.1. These enhancements further substantiates the financial health of charities awarded a four-star rating.
In a letter to MFK, Charity Navigator President Michael Thatcher wrote, “We are proud to announce Meds & Food for Kids has earned our eighth consecutive 4-star rating. This is our highest possible rating and indicates that your organization adheres to sector best practices and executes its mission in a financially efficient way. Attaining a 4-star rating verifies that Meds & Food for Kids exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in your area of work. ...This exceptional designation from Charity Navigator sets Meds & Food for Kids apart from its peers and demonstrates to the public its trustworthiness.”
Meds & Food for Kids’ rating and other information about charitable giving are available on www.charitynavigator.org.
About Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator,www.charitynavigator.org, is the largest charity evaluator in America and its website attracts more visitors than all other charity rating groups combined. The organization helps guide intelligent giving by evaluating the Financial Health and Accountability & Transparency of more than 8,000 charities. Charity Navigator accepts no advertising or donations from the organizations it evaluates, ensuring unbiased evaluations, nor does it charge the public for this trusted data. As a result, Charity Navigator, a 501 (c) (3) public charity itself, depends on support from individuals, corporations, and foundations that believe it provides a much-needed service to America's charitable givers. Charity Navigator can be reached directly by telephone at (201) 818-1288, or by mail at 139 Harristown Road, Suite 101, Glen Rock, N.J., 07452.
The first part of the peanut harvesting season has officially started in Haiti. Despite very little rainfall at the beginning of the planting season, Haitian farmers have worked tirelessly to have good crops. They wasted no time to plant despite the drought. For many of them, it is not a choice but a must. They have to plant, whether they have had enough rainfall or not because they rely entirely on agricultural activities to survive and feed their family. With limited irrigation infrastructure in Haiti, farmers rely on rainfall to water their fields.
MFK remains a proud partner of peanut smallholders and farmers throughout the country. Through non-profit organizations, for-profit enterprises, and farmer’s co-ops, Meds and Food for Kids sources thousands of metric tons of local peanuts to produce our life-saving peanut butter medicine. This strategy fits well within MFK’s mission to contribute to the economic development of the country.
From COVID-19 to political instability, to the assassination of the president, to the recent earthquake in the southern part of Haiti, the country has gone through so much during the year 2021. Haitian peanut farmers have shown that there is hope. MFK Agriculture is excited to announce that MFK signed its biggest contract to buy local peanuts from Haitian farmers and local enterprises. MFK is committed to purchasing 138 metric tons (MT) of peanuts from local provided that will be delivered between the months of August 2021 to December 2021. 25 metric tons have already been delivered to MFK in the month of August. MFK partners with the non-profit organization IF Foundation located in Milot, which manages a network of more than 500 peanut farmers in the north to provide good quality peanuts with low aflatoxin levels. MFK also partners with Acceso Haiti which is a for-profit supply chain social enterprise that works with smallholder farmers in order to improve their livelihoods. And finally, MFK partners with a few farmer’s co-ops in the north region and private farms to source good quality peanuts.
This is extremely important for MFK because it has been years that MFK was unable to purchase more than 50 metric tons of peanuts per year. Several reasons explain this-- from year to year, farmers may have bad seasons due to drought or too much rain, or the quality of the peanuts does not meet MFK’s standard, or the peanuts are highly contaminated with aflatoxin, a toxin that can affect people’s health. The MFK Agriculture department was created with the mission to train Haitian peanut farmers on the proper way to plant peanuts and take care of the peanuts post harvests to avoid contamination. MFK is proud to see that the efforts that the organization has made in the past several years are bearing fruit.
MFK is excited to be able to locally source more raw materials in the country which in turn benefits the economic development of the country and reduces the number of peanuts MFK has to import yearly. Each week now, a truck full of local peanuts is being delivered at MFK. MFK agronomists will test the peanuts to make sure that they are of the highest quality and then send them to the production team. MFK has already purchased 45 MT of peanuts between January 2021 to June 2021. We believe this additional purchase of 138 MT is very impactful, as agriculture plays a vital role in the country's economy. MFK remains hopeful that with extensive training and adequate support from the government and other NGOs present in the country, local farmers can continue to achieve great success.
On behalf of the MFK staff, board members, and the thousands of Haitian families and children impacted by the work we do, thank you for your concern and support over the last two weeks. UNICEF reports an estimated 650,000 people — including 260,000 children — are in need of food, basic sanitation, hygiene, and water. Over 53,000 homes are estimated to be destroyed, leaving most families no choice but to sleep in the streets. The need in the aftermath of the earthquake and tropical storm is only growing.
Many of the communities in the southern peninsula of Haiti lie in mountainous, remote areas. The landslides and debris resulting from the earthquake and the tropical storm have obstructed the few roads, including Route National #7, which connects the southern cities of Les Cayes and Jeremie, reports Haiti's Civil Protection Agency.
Thanks to your incredible generosity, MFK has been able to supply an initial 150,000 sachets of Plumpy’Doz, our Ready-to-Use Supplementary Food. Plumpy’Doz is formulated to prevent malnutrition in children 6 months and older, and can also be used as a maintenance product for children at risk of falling into more severe malnutrition. It is also suitable as a supplement for people of all ages needing nutritious food in emergency situations, such as the current reality in Haiti.
To ensure our products reach the Haitians who need them, MFK is working directly with the Ministry of Public Health and Population of Haiti (MSPP) for distribution. We know from our 18 years in Haiti collaborating with them that MSPP has the most established and efficient distribution channels across the country.
While we hold a place in our hearts for the joy that comes from helping others, we simultaneously remind ourselves that this help will be needed for many months to come. UNICEF predicts that Haitian children’s susceptibility to malnutrition will increase in the upcoming weeks. We sincerely thank you, very much, for your generosity that enables our team in Cap-Haitien to continue producing our life-saving products.
Mesi Anpil,
Suzanne Langlois
Interim CEO
Dear Friends,
We appreciate all the expressions of concern we’ve heard from so many of you after Saturday’s earthquake and Monday’s tropical storm. As of this morning, there are 2,189 confirmed dead and over 12,000 injured from these natural disasters, according to Haiti's Civil Protection Agency.
The earthquake in Haiti’s southern peninsula has left residents without access to food, water and hospital care. UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million Haitians have been affected, including 540,000 children, and that more than 84,000 houses have been damaged or destroyed. Broken water pipes have washed out homes, leaving many families without shelter, in the middle of hurricane season. The main supermarket in Les Cayes, the largest town nearest the epicenter, collapsed. The many small markets residents rely on for produce, pantry staples and household supplies toppled.
Tropical Storm Grace has caused flooding and debris on the roadways. Haiti's Civil Protection Agency reports that Route National #7, which connects the southern cities of Les Cayes and Jeremie, has been completely blocked by the landslide. Blocked roads and damaged hospitals will strain health care in the region for many months, just as Haiti was starting to receive COVID vaccinations.
MFK’s factory team in Cap Haitien have been spared, feeling only tremors and aftershocks. Our factory and infrastructure are undamaged. However, we have heard from many of the clinics we supply that they urgently need the RUTF products we make at our factory. Our products allow them to care for the unexpected spike in hunger and food instability that the earthquake has caused.
The MFK team is working to coordinate delivery of our nutritious foods with our partners in the southern regions, as well as working directly with the Ministry of Public Health and Population of Haiti (MSPP) to ensure the resources reach those in need in the most efficient way.
Your donations will help us send emergency stores of nutritious foods that will ensure that the people affected by the earthquake will have the life-sustaining nutrition they need.
On behalf of the staff, board members and the thousands of Haitian families and children impacted by the work we do, thank you for your generous support.
Mesi Anpil,
Suzanne Langlois
Interim CEO
Meds & Food for Kids
Even as Haiti plunged deeper into crisis after the assassination of the president on July 7th, Meds & Food for Kids’ commitment to be by the side of the most vulnerable remained unchanged. From training healthcare workers to treat malnutrition, providing school kids with nutritious snacks to prevent malnutrition, to teaching farmers how to improve the quality and quantity of their crop yield, MFK has always stood by the most vulnerable people in Haiti.
On July 18th, 2021 the MFK Agriculture team proudly graduated a group of peanut farmers from two local communities in the North of Haiti: Savane Longue and Prevoyance. 45 farmers proudly crossed the stage to receive their certificates. These farmers were trained by MFK agronomists on a wide variety of topics including soil preparation, soil conservation, and erosion, crop rotation and mixed garden, aflatoxin control pre and post-harvest. The training also included group discussion and technical in-field activities.
The ceremony of recognition was held in the farmers’ community, in the presence of local authorities, MFK staff, and some local performers. James Blanc, MFK’s Agriculture Program Manager, spoke on behalf of MFK and highlighted the importance of this training for MFK and MFK’s long-term vision to see a better Haiti, with a stable economy, and trained farmers being able to not only increase their production but improve the quality as well. By increasing production and improving the quality of their products, they will make more money which in return can improve their livelihoods.
Local authorities who spoke at the event thanked MFK for the long-time partnership between MFK and these small communities. “This training is so meaningful to us in the community, and this is one of the best things that could happen for us over the last 30 years”, claims Antoine Milhomme, the casec (member of the Board of Communal Secton) of Savane Longue. Jocelyn Desamours, a graduate from Prevoyance, spoke on behalf of all graduates and thanked MFK for putting forward all their resources available to train them, they learn a lot of new things and he promises that they will do a lot of things differently from the past. Mr. Desamours also thanked the MFK’s agronomists who crossed roadblocks, faced riots to come to train them. It was a great moment to share a meal together and recognize the hard work of these farmers to provide food on our plates and provide for their families.
What’s next for these farmers? MFK’s mission does not stop after the graduation of this group. The graduates will become part of MFK’s certified farmer’s network, and as members, they will be able to sell high-quality peanuts for MFK’s production of RUTF snacks to treat malnutrition. MFK will also continue to work in these communities by recruiting additional groups and expanding the program to nearby communities. This would not be possible without the help of our donors. We would like to take this time to thank everyone who has been helping this organization. Your generosity is helping to save lives in Haiti and strengthen the local economy.
In Haiti, every single day is a new challenge. We press on even amid the tragedy that we are currently facing. We cannot just hope for a better tomorrow but continue to work hard today, as the Créole proverb says, "pa konte sou demen. (Don't count on tomorrow.) The Haitian health conditions continue to become more complicated every day. As a result, there are more cases of malnourished children as they have very little health support and access to food. MFK's team is always working hard to give a second chance to any child who is sick or malnourished. A sachet of Medika Mamba can make all the difference in saving their life.
The nutrition team at MFK is dedicated to the mission and committed to following up with all the partner clinics consistently every month. This results in many important findings on the success of nutrition education classes, health screenings, malnutrition prevention, and the treatment of children who are malnourished. In addition, the team follows up with clinics involved with the prenatal program-- checking in on the supplementation of pregnant and nursing women, as well as the evaluation and training of nurses and health agents to keep their health knowledge up to date.
Our partner clinic New Hope Hospital is located in the Plaine-du-Nord community in Northern, Haiti. MFK works with New Hope Hospital by providing Medika Mamba donations to treat malnutrition and operate the malnutrition program. The nurse and health agents who run the weekly program also organize one big children's screening day every month. They have adopted many practices to ensure the people understand the important health and nutritional topics to prevent malnutrition and feed their children properly. They are committed “to educate and screen as many children as possible to decrease malnutrition levels in Plaine du Nord".
One of the children in the community the program had a part in helping was Cephora. Cephora was recently treated for severe acute malnutrition at Profamille, another MFK clinic partner, located in Cap-Haitien at Fort St-Michel. Every Friday their clinic nurse runs the malnutrition program in partnership with MFK.
At 7 months old and just 6.6 lbs, Cephora was admitted for severe acute malnutrition with diarrhea, fever, and no appetite. Cephora's mother was very worried about her baby. Cephora's mom came to Profamille’s clinic with her baby for screening at the advice of a neighbor. At the first assisted education session, Kinderlie, Cephora's Mother, realized that she misunderstood many things on how to properly feed her baby girl. Cephora received the nutrition treatment and liked how Medika Mamba tasted. After spending 12 weeks in the malnutrition program, she was discharged at a healthier weight of 13.2 lbs.
"My baby girl's face and health were transformed, she looks like a different girl-- energized, full of joy, and playful. She can sit up on her own while she will be able to grow up healthier thanks to MFK’s Medika Mamba that we are so grateful for," added Kinderlie.
Dear Friends of MFK and Haiti,
The Haitian President’s assassination was a tragedy, and we grieve with the people of Haiti. MFK nevertheless remains optimistic about the future of Haiti, and is committed to the voiceless people of Haiti who have nowhere else to live, few opportunities for employment and not enough food for their children.
Since I first visited Haiti in 1988 there has been much turmoil, many natural disasters and ongoing political change. But everything (except Mother Nature) has improved in these last 33 years. Because of the resilience and hard work of Haitians, MFK is optimistic about the future. Today we are continuing to produce Medika Mamba in our factory and keeping our eyes on the security situation to be certain that all of our employees are safe. Luckily, we are situated far from the chaos of Port au Prince.
More than ever, Haiti needs our support and partnership. And more than ever, MFK needs your support and partnership so that we can continue to fulfill our mission to save lives and help build a better future. Thank you all for your compassionate concern and support of Haiti’s poorest people.
As they say in Haiti “Kenbe fem.” Stay the course, stay strong.
With much gratitude,
Pat Wolff
Founder, Senior Advisor
Ezaie is and an only child who lives with his parents in Plaine-du-Nord, just under 10 miles from Cap-Haitien. Ezaie's family is supported by his father, who is a farmer with a small income. His mother stays at home to care for the whole family. Ezaie was born at home and was not able to be fed with breast milk due to his mother falling sick with an unknown illness after delivering him.
At 6 months old, Ezaie’s health became complicated-- and after several unsuccessful appointments and assessments by doctors, Ezaie's situation did not improve. One day, a friend of Ezaie's family suggested his father go to CHIDA hospital in Balan, where he was evaluated by a doctor who referred him to the malnutrition program through MFK's partner clinic for screening. This malnutrition program in the Balan community has been very helpful to the community and has saved the lives of many malnourished children in this zone. Thanks to MFK and Medika Mamba, between October 2018 and 2021 the rate of the death of malnutrition has decreased in the area.
Ezaie was screened for severe acute malnutrition and admitted to the CHIDA malnutrition program at just 12.1 lbs. He was then enrolled in the malnutrition program and received Medika Mamba for the 10-week duration of his treatment. His parent also participated in nutrition and health education classes during the course of his treatment. At 15 months of age, Ezaie graduated from the program at a healthier weight of 15.4 lbs.
Every beneficiary at CHIDA hospital is grateful for the malnutrition program and supply of Medika Mamba from MFK, especially Ezaie's mom. "I have a new baby from this product called Medika Mamba, it was a miracle treatment for my baby's life," she added.
Dear Friends,
The past year has been tumultuous for the entire world, including MFK. Throughout, we’ve been able to continue producing, distributing, and treating children in Haiti – thanks in large part to your continued support of our work, for children who desperately need our help. We are mentoring smallholder farmers and providing stable employment for our employees. In fact, in the first nine months of the current fiscal year we outpaced our record-breaking production in 2020 with 1,074,645 million kilos of Ready-to-Use Foods.
We are thankful for your partnership. As our partner, we would like to update you on a management change: we have accepted the resignation of CEO Angela Brown Gilliam. This is not the outcome we hoped for, but we know Angela will continue to support MFK’s work. The MFK Board and I are fully committed to launching a new CEO search and will strategize with the search firm to identify the right leader for the organization’s next season of growth.
Continuity is crucial to the lives of the children we serve, so we are pleased to announce that the board has elected Suzanne Langlois as interim CEO beginning July 1, 2021. Suzanne joined the MFK board in 2010 and has served on the Development, Governance, and CEO Search Committees. In recent years, she has been Secretary of the board and serves on the Executive Committee.
In her professional life, Suzanne is the co-founder and former co-owner of Kaldi’s Coffee Roasting Company – a roaster and regional wholesaler of specialty coffee; and Kaldi’s Coffeehouse – cafes offering coffee beverages and eclectic fare. She currently teaches entrepreneurship at Washington University in St. Louis, MO.
The St. Louis and Haiti staffs are supportive of these decisions and will ensure a smooth transition. Angela will remain on our team for the next six weeks to transfer knowledge, make introductions and offer assistance where needed.
Thank you for all that you do to help MFK save lives and improve livelihoods for Haiti’s people. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Mesi Anpil,
Jeff Klopfenstein
Board President
In many cases, internships help students gain career experience that serves them for the whole of their professional careers. At Meds & Food for Kids (MFK), I have been recruited since April for a professional work and research program in agriculture. Being an agronomist, I have offered my skills to help accomplish the mission of MFK in making the gold standard of Ready-To-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF). MFK makes products in Haiti, using Haitian workers and, whenever possible, Haitian raw materials. Since being founded in 2003, MFK’s RUTF, Medika Mamba (Haitian Creole for “peanut butter medicine”) has already saved the lives of over 530,000 children.
In the agriculture department, we work with many kinds of farmers and peanut producers. This helps us grow our network and meet peanut providers, gets us in touch with people from rural areas, expands research, and increases knowledge of agricultural practices through farmer education. We plan agriculture activities, practice planting common seeds, and are introduced to other peanut seeds popularized by the local government. We are responsible for buying and testing peanuts before use in the factory, supervising peanuts that are sampled, sorting, and checking humidity control before tested aflatoxin content. We also assist with planting for farmers and peanut producers in rural areas, helping the providers get more peanuts to the local market.
As an intern, I was limited in my own responsibilities, but there was always something to assist with as my direct supervisor is always very busy on site. In my months at MFK, I have learned a lot of things that will serve me in my career in the future, such as spending time in the laboratory learning about quality tests, environment test control, and water quality. It was a very great experience. I have really appreciated the support of my supervisor; he took the time to introduce me to many kinds of experimental sectors in the industry. I really want to take the time to say thank you to the MFK staff for this beautiful experience and I hope for a partnership in the future.
In Haiti the current rate of COVID-19 cases is high, only further contributing to unrest on the island. This also means that the situation of malnutrition has and will continue to become more complicated. MFK and its local clinical partners are continuing to work every day to provide education to parents to prevent COVID-19 through keeping social distance, wearing masks, and washing hands while still treating malnutrition.
This month two twins recovered from malnutrition; Fransline and Franslin. The twins are 17 months old and living in Chabanon, a small community of Limonade close to the sea which is named Bord de mer de Limonade (Seaside Limonade), approximately twenty minutes from the MFK factory. The main resources in this zone are bananas, sugar cane, mangos, and beautiful peach trees. Unfortunately, it is still one of the zones where the malnutrition levels are the highest. Every month, MFK works with clinic partner Flamboyant to enroll more than fifty new children in the malnutrition program.
Fransline and Franslin are the youngest in a family of five children. Their father Francique is a fisherman with a small income, while their mother, Germaine, stays at home to take care of the whole family. During her pregnancy, Germaine had visited a doctor at Limonade health clinic to have control of her babies but she planned to deliver at home. Franslin was born at home, while Fransline was born at Justinian Hospital. The twins were breastfed for the first month and were able to receive their complete vaccine doses.
At 8 months old, the babies became sick and developed diarrhea, fever, and low appetite. Germaine went with them to the Flamboyant community clinic, where they were screened for severe acute malnutrition. After one week of starting their Medika Mamba treatment, their health situation became more complicated, so the nurse referred them to Justinian Hospital for better medical assistance. There they spent 14 days in a USN room.
Fransline and Franslin were discharged from Justinian Hospital and then returned to the Flamboyant malnutrition program after 14 days. They spent an additional 8 weeks there and continued to receive malnutrition treatment while their mother received health and nutrition education. The twins then went on to graduate at a healthy weight.
Germaine was very excited to explain her joy and gratitude to MFK for this excellent donation, hoping that the malnutrition level decreases in Chabanon and Bord de Mer Limonade. "I am very happy that my babies have recovered and that they will be able to walk and grow up healthier thanks to MFK and Medika Mamba. I now know how to feed my kids to prevent malnutrition, rules of hygiene, and treat the water." Added Germaine.
Haiti celebrated Mother’s Day on May 30th. It’s a special day for all Haitians, observed by long church services, dressing up in Sunday best, sharing gifts and flowers, and mourning for those who have lost their moms. In Haiti, they often say “Mother’s day is for all mothers,” whether you are rich or poor, young or adult, from rural areas or big cities.
Meds & Food for Kids is proud to celebrate and honor Haitian mothers, especially those MFK have had a chance to work with whether in our malnutrition program, prenatal program, or farmer training program. Haitian mothers are some of the most resilient women in the world. Nearly half of the Haitian households are led by women and two-thirds of Haitian women participate actively in the workforce.
The MFK agriculture team works with rural mothers who are deeply involved in the agriculture supply chain. They are involved in every aspect of the chain, from planting to the commercialization of peanut production. The work that women do is integral to the Haitian economy. MFK has 20 mothers participating in this season’s farmer training program. Women are key to producing good quality peanuts with a low level of aflatoxins because they tend to take the lead and manage the peanuts after harvest (drying and selling peanuts, storing and selling). They are all this while at the same time taking care of their children at home.
Yolette Jean-Baptiste is 43 years old and a mother of 5. She has taken part in the farmer training group this year. Mrs. Jean-Baptiste explains that she works on her own land while her husband works on a separate piece of land. “I wake up early in the morning, around 5 o’clock at the same time with my husband, my husband goes to his garden and I stay to make sure that the kids go to school on time and cook for them”, Yolette says. Yolette goes to her garden around 8 am after sending the kids to school and manages to work until she knows when the kids would be back. Yolette is taking advantage of the time when the kids are in school to attend MFK farmer training and she is hopeful the training will help her to increase her production and produce a better quality of peanuts. “I am learning a lot of new techniques and I remain hopeful that I can be a great peanut provider for MFK”, Yolette remarks.
Yolette is just one example of how hard Haitian mothers work. MFK is proud to partner with these extraordinary women through our agriculture program, helping to provide the tools and knowledge they need to support their families through farming. Please join MFK in honoring Haitian mothers. We thank you for your support in changing the lives of Haitian women and their families through our programs.
Meds & Food for Kids is fortunate to have a dedicated and talented team of Haitian employees on the ground in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. During this time of COVID-19, their jobs have been more challenging and required adaptability, flexibility, and ingenuity. MFK would like to introduce you to Martín Lassalle, our Business Manager. Martín has been working for MFK since February of 2021.
Martín is originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was born and raised in a little town in the suburbs called Beccar. He graduated from Universidad de Buenos Aires with a degree in law, and later graduated with a postgraduate degree in Nonprofit Organizations Management from Universidad de San Andres. He also has his diploma in Project Management from Universidad de Buenos Aires.
Though his background is in international & human rights law, Martín worked for over 10 years in the financial sector, mainly in the stock market in his home country, until 2010. He then started volunteering with a non-profit organization called TECHO and began getting involved in different social projects locally in Argentina. His first career venture in a non-profit role was in 2014 as the country manager for TECHO in Haiti. After his time at TECHO, he spent some time working in Guatemala and Costa Rica.
Even though Martín had moved onto other opportunities, Haiti was still at the forefront of his mind. “After my first experience in Haiti (from 2014 to 2016) I kept looking for job opportunities in the country since I never wanted to leave it in the first place. I also worked with rural communities in Cabaret and Croix-des-Bouquets and I got to know firsthand the hardships families in rural communities face every day to secure food for their own.” In 2020, Martín started to actively search for a work opportunity to go back to the country, and that’s when he started to learn more about MFK and their work in Haiti. Martín says “I feel really blessed to join the team and to be able to return to this beautiful and challenging country.”
At MFK, Martín is the Director of Sales & Administration In Haiti, working on developing a local market for the products and also providing support to HR, finance, and administration locally. He also works daily within customer relations. Due to the scope of Martín’s role, every day is very different. From going to visit a school distributing Vita Mamba, to having meetings with cooperation agencies, to working with MFK’s customer relations manager to look for new partners, every day brings a new surprise and new situations to work on.
Outside of his vocation, Martín loves art and sports. He spends most of his free time reading, watching movies, listening to different types of music, and trying to catch a match of his favorite soccer team online. (whenever Haiti internet allows it). He also loves outdoor activities and takes the opportunity whenever he can to go to different beaches around Okap.
Martín says his favorite aspect of working with MFK is being part of an organization that is making such a huge impact in the country, and in many other places as well. He shares “I love being able to contribute to delivering help where it is most needed. I also feel really lucky to work with so many talented and capable coworkers, in a place where everyone aims to achieve the same goals.”
Fort Bourgeois is a beautiful community located in Northern Haiti in Cap-Haitien among the mountains. Unfortunately in this area, malnutrition is one of the leading causes of children’s mortality. As part of our malnutrition program, Meds & Food for Kids partners with Centre de Santé Fort Bourgeois-ULS to provide Medika Mamba treatment and important health education sessions to parents.
Julie was born in Port-au-Prince in the community of Cité Soleil. She lived with her mother and two siblings. Her mother had very little money and no family near to help her, making it difficult to feed her children. From the time of her birth onward, Julie grew progressively sicker. She was hospitalized several times for diarrhea, fever, vomiting, and low appetite.
When Julie was around 12 months old she had become so weak she could not sit or stand up properly. Some neighbors advised her mother to take her to Grace Children’s Hospital for screening, one of MFK’s partners. At this particular clinic, MFK had donated enough Medika Mamba to treat malnutrition so that every month more than a hundred malnourished children are able to be enrolled in the malnutrition program. After screening, Julie was admitted as severely malnourished at a weight of 12.3 lbs.
Julie loved the taste of Medika Mamba. She spent 10 weeks in the program receiving the product each week and graduated at a healthier weight of 15.8 lbs.
Julie’s mom was very happy and grateful for MFK giving this donation to Grace Children Hospital, treating the poorest children in Port-au-Prince for malnutrition and saving Julie’s life. Julie is now happy and healthy, and strong enough again to be a very mobile toddler.
An agricultural-industrial fair was held downtown in Cap Haitien, on the boulevard by the ocean. In a festive atmosphere of animation, exhibition, and information sharing around the theme “Ann jere dlo pou sove lavi,”(Let’s manage water to save lives,) the fair gave the opportunity for producers/business owners, and artisans to exhibit their products and reflect on this day. Agricultural process industries were able to showcase their products and services derived from agricultural products grown in Haiti.
Daphné was 17 when she became pregnant. She lived with her mother, stepfather, and two siblings in Bodin, a small community in northern Haiti in Cap-Haitian. After becoming pregnant, it was difficult for Daphné to receive proper care and nourishment, as her whole family was being supported on a small farmer’s income.
In Haiti, some communities do not have a health center with a midwife or gynecologist to help pregnant women access the care they need during pregnancy. Usually, pregnant women never receive care or checkups during pregnancy at all. They often deliver at home by a matron or someone in their family, putting them at higher risk for complications.
MFK supports community clinics in preventing malnutrition by distributing Mamba Djanm (Plumpy Dose) products as a supplement, from pregnancy to breastfeeding. MFK’s nurse and health agent who run the program also provide nutrition education, advice on prenatal and postnatal health risks, hygiene, breastfeeding, and more. Women who have taken part in MFK’s prenatal program and received Mamba Djanm as supplemental treatment have shown no signs of anemia or delivered low birth weight babies.
Daphné was invited by a health agent to come to the clinic in Madeline. Daphné was able to receive Mamba Djanm over a period of six months and was assessed by a gynecologist for her pregnancy. She later gave birth to a beautiful baby boy at a healthy weight. As Daphné was graduating from the program, the baby’s weight was 6.4 kg (14.08 lbs) when he was 3 months old.
Daphné shared, “Thanks to MFK’s Mamba Djanm, I feel better and healthier. Every day, these sachets have helped me fight hunger, give me strength, and meet my basic nutritional needs. My baby has been saved from malnutrition and will grow up healthy.”
For the next three months, we have two wonderful interns who will be learning about our research method, farmer training, peanut purchases, and more. We are grateful to have them as part of the team! Here’s a little more about them:
Jeffté was born in Petite-Anse, an area of Haiti with very high malnutrition rates. Jeffté and his father and mother all live with Jeffté’s grandparents. When Jeffté was seven months old, he began to grow thin and weak as his appetite gradually decreased. His grandmother, who often cared for him, became worried for his health and well-being.
Jeffté’s health continued to worsen, and when he was ten months old his grandmother brought him wrapped in a towel to a local hospital in Cap-Haitien. Jeffté had never been able to see a doctor or nurse prior to the visit. He was referred to Clinic Medico-Social at Charrier, a partner malnutrition program, where MFK’s nurse was able to provide a consultation. After screening, it was clear Jeffté was severely malnourished with additional complications, weighing just 8.8 LB with edema.
The clinic quickly sent him to another MFK partner, Danita’s Children, where he was able to spend three weeks in their inpatient malnutrition center to receive intensive treatment for his malnutrition and other illnesses. When Jeffté was able to be discharged, he returned to the outpatient Medika Mamba program and continued to gain weight. After an additional 8 weeks of treatment, Jeffté graduated at a healthier weight of 16.3 LB.
Jeffté’s grandmother and the rest of his family are so grateful to MFK for saving the life of their child. His grandmother said that she didn’t have the exact words to thank MFK for the excellent care and the work which they are doing in Haiti– she hopes this program will continue to save more even children from malnutrition.
In 2018, Meds & Food for Kids embarked on a journey to achieve certification of the International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO) 22000 standards. After many months of hard work and an intense two-day audit of our management systems, MFK was granted certification in ISO 22000:2005 on March 20, 2019. MFK was one of the first food processing facilities in Haiti to achieve this certification.
ISO is a worldwide federation of national standards. Through its members, it brings together experts to share knowledge and develop voluntary, consensus-based, market-relevant international standards which support innovation and provide solutions to global challenges. Certification can be a useful tool to add credibility by demonstrating that a product or service meets the expectations of your customers. For some industries, certification is a legal or contractual requirement. MFK’s largest customer, UNICEF, has strongly encouraged its suppliers to become certified.
Gaining certification was just the beginning of our journey; the ISO 22000:2005 certificate is valid for three years, but the independent auditors must conduct an update audit each year for the certification to remain in place. In 2020, MFK’s update audit was scheduled for March 18-19 at our facility in Haiti. The auditors, based at a consulting firm in Mexico City, Mexico, decided to not travel to Haiti given continuing U.S. State Department Level 4 travel advisory for Haiti. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic made international travel inadvisable. We agreed to the remote audit, as it was unclear when international travel to Haiti would be permitted and advisable. As I have shared with you in the past, we were successful in passing this re-certification audit.
Unfortunately, 2021 brings with it continuing challenges with traveling to Haiti, given many COVID-19 related restrictions and additional security issues on the ground in Haiti. The auditors once again decided that it would be prudent to conduct the audit remotely.
MFK held the audit on a Zoom platform, which worked well, for the most part, as the internet in Haiti is sometimes unreliable. The daily Zoom calls included Nolny Alphonse, MFK Quality Assurance Manager; Remenson Tenor, MFK Plant Manager, both from Haiti; the two auditors, from their homes in Mexico City; and me, Lauren Plummer, MFK’s Chief Administrative Officer, in Saint Louis, Missouri.
The audit plan for the third and final year of re-certification process was somewhat different from 2020 plan. First, the International Organization for Standardization had updated its ISO 22000 standards to better align with other ISO standards. In order to keep our certification in 2021, we needed to pass the audit using the revised standards (ISO 22000:2018 instead of the former ISO 22000:2005). This represented several differences in the way in which we organized our food safety management system; it also required new sections to the system dedicated to an organizational risk-based approach to management. In summary, this new approach involved identifying context and environmental issues external to the organization, internal to the organization, and identifying the requirements and expectations of all interested parties. Once this context was set and risks and opportunities were identified, it then requires actions to be integrated in the operational processes. Finally, it requires evaluating effectiveness of the implemented actions.
We started the first day by discussing the observations from the last re-certification audit in 2020, and progress and refinements we had made to our food safety management system over the last year. We then discussed our progress in moving from the 2005 standards to the 2018 standards. We gave examples of our emergency preparedness, a must-have factor in certification, including our current protocols to address employee safety and additional hygiene in this time of COVID-19, as well as reviewing the steps MFK has taken to sustain operations and meet customers’ needs through Haiti’s periodic civil unrest.
The auditors toured our facility via cell phone video on WhatsApp, and also interviewed two of our operators in production about their understanding of the food safety management system at MFK. We worked through the second day of the audit with Nolny screen-sharing many components of our management systems and policies, providing evidence that we strictly adhere to these systems, based on the ISO standards. MFK is pleased to report we passed the update audit again and are able to share this wonderful news with all of you. Next year we will have a prolonged audit, with the aspiration of attaining a new ISO 22000 certificate.
Bahon is a beautiful community located in northern Haiti. To get to Bahon, it takes over two hours by car through very rural areas with bad roads. Each Tuesday, the parents of children in the malnutrition program supported by MFK have to climb up and down mountains or hire a motorcycle taxi to take them to the clinic to get treatment and support. A Haitian nurse and health agent work together each week to ensure the children can be seen and their height and weight can be collected to track their progress.
MFK’s nurse visits Bahon on a regular basis to provide consultation and support to the nurse and health agent, and we also donate all product needed to treat the children. One recent graduate of the malnutrition treatment program is Roselande. Last month, thanks to Medika Mamba, she returned back to life. The younger of two children, Roselande was 19 months old when her health began to deteriorate due to malnutrition. She began experiencing fever and diarrhea, her appetite lessened and she became puffy and swollen with edema. Her parents reported that she cried all the time. She weighed only 19 LB, with her edema.
The local health Agent, Cyliac always traverses the mountains to reach out to the malnourished children in need of treatment. He met Roselande’s Mom and advised her to bring her daughter to Bahon clinic to be screened for malnutrition. After the screening process, she was referred to MFK partner, Danita’s Children, with severe health complications from malnutrition. Roselande spent two weeks receiving Medika Mamba and other medical treatment. Once she was recovered enough to leave the health center, she was admitted back into the malnutrition program at Bahon to complete her treatment. She graduated the program at 22 LB.
Roselande’s Mom was so grateful for the malnutrition treatment and support that her daughter received at both locations. She thanked our team for giving her daughter a second chance at life.
Philomise is a farmer from Savane Longue, a small community in the Northeast of Haiti in Ouanaminthe, home to approximately 10,000 people.
At a very young age, Philomise remembers being involved in agriculture related activities, especially peanut production. As early as 6 years of age, she remembers helping with planting, harvesting, drying and selling peanuts.
After getting married, Philomise was eager to find another activity that would generate more money for the household, as peanut farming was not enough to support her young family. Irrigation issues, lack of rainfall, soil erosion, seed issues and pests were just a few of the common issues that she faced season after season. She finally gave up the agriculture activities to focus on running a small business selling raw meat and other foods on the main road while her husband remained focused on agriculture. “I generated more money to support my family in this small business than in farming,” claimed Philomise. After several years running her business, Philomise felt very comfortable, but never dropped the idea of one day going back to farming.
Philomise was introduced to the MFK farmer training program when a community leader asked her to be part of the 2019 training cohort. It was a hard decision for Philomise because she would need someone to take care of her business activities during the two hours she would be away at the training. She finally convinced her sister to help her during one day of the week so she could attend the training. Philomise attended the training consistently and participated in all activities. “By listening to the agronomist, I realize that I was doing a lot of things wrong with my farming practices,” Philomise explained. “I did not know that I was supposed to dry the peanuts on tarp, I usually dry them on bare ground, and I could not recognize the diseases that limited my productivity,” she added.
After graduating from the MFK training program, Philomise decided to start farming again while keeping her small business alive. Philomise was selected by MFK agronomists to join the Champions program. The objective of this more intensive agricultural program is to provide support to the most vulnerable smallholders’ farmers in the north to improve their livelihoods: strengthening peanut production in the Ouanaminthe areas, providing inputs and trainings to improve peanut yield and quality and buying peanuts from smallholder farmers at a favorable and fixed price.
Through this program, Philomise benefitted from equipment and tools to support her in her efforts, and the MFK agronomist visiting her throughout the season to evaluate progress and provide advice. Philomise planted 12 marmites of peanuts which is roughly 14.4 kg of peanuts and she harvested about 150 marmites (180kg). This is considered to be successful due to farmers in these areas genrally harvesting an average of 50 marmites (60kg) for each 10 marmites (12kg) planted without any consultation or support. Philomise’s peanuts also passed aflatoxin contamination tests and she was able to sell to MFK and use the proceeds to feed her family and send her children to school.
Now that Philomise succeeded on low scale, she wants to keep on the same track and plant more next season to sell to MFK now as a certifier supplier. We applaud Philomise for a job well done and look forward to watching her yields and income continue to increase into the future.
We are deeply grateful for the viewership and generous support of our donors and friends for our first ever virtual gala!
Missed the event and still want to support our programs? Click below to watch our show in its entirety or click here to make a gift.
Special thanks to Ironman Sound Industries, Jeff Civillico, Susan Werremeyer, Chad Wolford, John Jacobsen, Kevin Fitzgerald and Matchbox Design Group.
I left Haiti and moved to the United States on September 3, 2003. Despite all the bad things I had heard in the news, I took a trip back to Haiti with Dr. Patricia Wolff in October 2020. I was so inspired by the presence of MFK in the communities I visited, I am reassured that there is hope for a better Haiti.
The first program I visited was MFK’s agriculture program in the north east part of Haiti. James Blanc, the lead agronomist who joined MFK in 2018, introduced me to a couple farmers in the MFK’s champions program. Our first stop was in a beautiful little village called Baja, in the north east part of Haiti. This is where James meets with the farmers every week on Wednesday at 12pm for the “Champions Program.” The Champions Program is an intensive individualized farmer mentorship which includes a farming class that lasts for two hours. In those two hours, James teaches the farmers about different farming concepts including soil preparation, soil conservation, and techniques to prevent aflatoxin contamination as well as basic business methodologies.
Farmers in the northeast do not think of their farming activities as a business venture. Oliquer, one of the farmers in the champions program that I spoke with, told me that he is a farmer because that is what his parents did. Farmers in Baja generally spend all their time and little resources they have in their garden without understanding the possible return they can expect or keeping track of their investments. James told me that he encourages the farmers to record the costs of everything they put into their garden so that they can track their progress and, ultimately, profit. Since most farmers in that part of Haiti are not able to read or write, they have to rely on their kids to help them record the information.
MFK’s Champion Program promises true social-economic development in the communities I visited. The farmers in the Champions Program told me that their rent, children education, and healthcare depend on their peanut harvest. Before MFK’s program, harvesting was a game of lottery. If the impact of climate change did not destroy their garden, aflatoxin contamination still threatened a good harvest. However, because of MFK’s Champion’s Program, the farmers told me they feel much more confident about meeting the needs of their family.
The Improving Aflatoxin Control in Haiti (AFLAH) project aimed to improve aflatoxin control through concerted efforts of men and women peanut farmers, other value chain actors, and public institutions, including multiple Haitian government agencies. This project is financed by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a Canadian government institution, and managed by Dr. Patrice Dion of Laval University in Québec City. The project focused on identifying the factors that influence the adoption of methods to control aflatoxins by farmers and other actors in the peanut industry in Haiti.
COVID-19 has created an unprecedented crisis for everyone. The magnitude and spread of this virus has shown us just how connected we all are to one another. The past eight months have been difficult. Your support is essential to respond to the increased malnutrition that we are seeing in Haiti. Read more about how your financial support helps us continue serving children like Jesula and farmers like Rose Marie in our fall mailer.
We need your help now more than ever. There is much work to be done. We cannot do it without you. As you are able, we are grateful for whatever you can do to continue supporting our mission. Together, we can get to the day when malnutrition is no more.
Meds & Food for Kids produces Ready-to-Use Foods in our factory in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. That much is known. What may be unknown is how our all our operations are intricately interwoven. Our process starts with a simple seed – a peanut – and ends in the hands of a child at a malnutrition clinic like Société d’Aide Médical (SAMED).
A core part of MFK’s mission is purchasing peanuts from local farmers to use in our Ready-to-Use Foods (RUFs). By doing so, MFK helps a farmer support their family by providing a market for their crops. In the beginning, MFK employees would go to the local market and purchase what was available. As operations expanded over the years, so did MFK’s peanut purchases. To help meet this demand, MFK researches different seed varieties that produce higher yields and passes that information down to the farmers who participate in our farmer education programs.
However, MFK must meet strict international food safety standards. To ensure MFK purchases peanuts that are free from aflatoxin (a dangerous carcinogen produced by certain molds) MFK’s Agriculture Team teaches farmers not only how to increase yields, but also how to grow peanuts that are free of aflatoxin and suitable for MFK’s production of RUF.
Peanuts are rich in energy and contain nutrients, minerals, antioxidants and vitamins that are essential for treating and curing malnutrition. This is why our products are peanut-based. Once MFK inspects the peanuts from local farmers, they are purchased and stored in preparation for being combined with other ingredients to make nutritious products like Vita Mamba, our school snack.
Full Interview Transcript:
“You know, if there were technologies that could make me more youthful, and more energetic, for longer so that I could do the meaningful work that I like to do–longer–of course I would be very enthusiastic
about that. Why wouldn’t I?”
Meds & Food for Kids, or MFK, is an organization that I started 17 years ago because of what I had seen in the previous 15 years in Haiti. Lots of sick kids, not getting better with medicine. Sick because they were malnourished and no real way to treat them. So we started making this concoction of peanuts, powdered milk, sugar, oil, vitamins, and minerals with a little hand grinder. Then we put a motor on it, then put a hopper on it and moved six times, and raised money to build a big factory and employ more people. So we now have 66 Haitian employees.
We have worked with thousands and thousands of Haitian peanut farmers over the years to grow better peanuts that we can then buy. And we have now treated in combination with Haiti and 16 other countries to which we export, 430,000 children’s lives have been saved. So we really feel like we’ve really made a dent in it but the really hard part of this is sustainability and continuing and continuing.
I was taking aging for granted and thinking I was just kinda chugging along and was going to live forever. Until last summer, I was in Haiti and it was 9:15 at night and I was in bed and got severe angina. And I knew what it was and there was nothing to be done about it. I didn’t have an aspirin. I called three people and they didn’t have an aspirin. If I went to the hospital they wouldn’t have had an aspirin. They couldn’t have done anything for me and I thought “Whoa. Hmmm…this is surprising. This is how it ends, huh?” And it went on for 90 minutes and in that 90 minutes, that is a long time to think.
So, I fell asleep and I woke up in the morning and I was alive and I thought “Whoa, that’s good. Whoa! That’s something.” And, I didn’t die. I made my calls to the airline and got on the airplane and we went to the hospital and I had a stent put in and here I am today. I’m good to go for another 20 years maybe, but sometimes it doesn’t work out for people. Right? At the cardiac cath, I had a 99% occlusion of the widowmaker so I would have been dead.
You know, I’m really all about meaningfulness and so if I could lead a meaningful life for a long, long time, to me, that would be great. I know there’s lots of things we could do in Haiti that would be very useful and be done in lots of places and if I had more energy maybe I would go to those other places. So, I don’t see any shortage of things to do.”
MFK lost a great supporter and friend. Dr. William Danforth, who passed away yesterday, supported MFK’s agriculture and school feeding programs and was invested in our work with smallholder farmers. As a former chancellor of Washington University, he connected the university with MFK’s mission. Dr. Danforth accomplished tremendous good for Washington University, St. Louis, MFK and the world in his lifetime. He will be sorely missed and MFK is forever grateful.
It felt so good to get back to Haiti after a six-month absence due to COVID-19. The sun shone every day. I flew from Ft. Pierce, Florida to Cap-Haitien along with nine other passengers with Missionary Flights International flight.
Upon arrival, my forehead temperature was taken and I was asked questions about sickness and exposures. The airport was empty of passengers except for the 10 of us and our luggage was quickly found. We made it through customs quickly – even customs was off their usual game…. If you know what I mean……I was asked to quarantine for 14 days and told I would be called three times to check for sickness. I was always masked. I did not visit any stores or markets, and I only engaged in outdoor activities on my own street and at the factory. Fortunately, a few of my friends visited me with masks on and brought delicious local fruit.
At the factory, all employees and visitors wash hands for 20 seconds, get a forehead temperature check, step out of their street clothes and take a shower before they enter the premises wearing clean scrubs. Although there is little testing in Haiti, we assume that almost half of our staff, out for less than a week with a “little fever” has had COVID. The rate of severe illness and death in Haiti is very low officially and anecdotally. We were braced for more serious illnesses, but it appears the worst predictions have not come to pass. We are very grateful but continue with protocols and holding our collective breath.
Meds & Food for Kids would like to introduce you to Magdalla Borgella, our nurse educator. Magdalla has been working for MFK and assisting MFK partner clinics since March 2018.
Magdalla has a monthly planning calendar so she can visit each clinic routinely. MFK has 13 active malnutrition programs and five prenatal programs and she visits one program per day, either malnutrition or prenatal. She helps plan out the malnutrition programs and evaluates the nurses who work at the clinics.
Facing rising cases of COVID-19 in Haiti, and a declining number of clinics and hospitals capable of caring for malnourished children, the production and distribution of Meds & Food for Kids’ (MFK) Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF) is essential. As the number of positive COVID-19 cases in Haiti increase, the number of malnutrition cases will continue to increase as well.
The Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) received a donation of 4,500 boxes (62,000 kilograms) of Mamba Djanm/Plumpy’Sup and 500 boxes (6,890 kilograms) of Medika Mamba/Plumpy’Nut from MFK that will help save the lives of an estimated 5,000 severely and moderately malnourished children in Haiti. The MSPP Director of Nutrition and Food has developed an implementation plan for the country’s 10 health departments.
The product, valued at more than $280,000, will treat vulnerable children whose families are struggling to feed them due to rising costs of basic necessities and the inability to work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We persist in our mission. The children of Haiti need our help now more than ever. Our top priority is to work with the Ministry of Public Health and Population to find and treat Haitian children in desperate need of our help,” noted MFK Founder and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Patricia Wolff. “We are deeply grateful to our donors for making this treatment for 5,000 malnourished Haitian children possible.”
Medika Mamba – which means “peanut butter medicine” in Haitian Creole – is considered the gold standard for treating malnutrition by the World Health Organization. MFK produces this and other humanitarian products in its Cap-Haïtien, Haiti manufacturing center using Haitian employees and some local raw materials.
Dear Friends,
Last week, we informed you about the selection of my successor, Vanessa Charlot. After further discussion with Vanessa, she feels that there is a different role at MFK which better suits her goals and ours. Vanessa is committed to championing MFK’s vision and mission by using her public profile as a documentary photographer to elevate our cause. She will volunteer her photography and expertise to support MFK’s strategic communication, marketing, and fundraising efforts through visual storytelling and compelling media narratives.
Please rest assured that I will continue in my role as MFK’s CEO and that my passion for MFK’s mission is unwavering. The MFK Board and I are fully committed to the CEO search continuing. We are confident Kittleman & Associates is the firm that will lead MFK to the right candidate.
Effective immediately, we are reopening the search for my successor. The CEO role is challenging and requires deep dedication to MFK’s mission, the willingness to commit very long hours to MFK’s life-saving work, hands-on leadership of the factory in Haiti as well as of the administrative staff in the U.S., while maintaining relationships with relevant stakeholders around the world. The position description has been reposted online.
The St. Louis and Haiti staff continue to work hard during this time and are fully supportive of the selection committee’s efforts. Thank you for your continued support and know we could not do our important work in Haiti without you.
Mesi Anpil,
In healthcare, much as in life, nobody functions as an island. Collaboration and teamwork are an essential part of what gets Medika Mamba from our production factory into the mouths of malnourished children around Haiti – and around the world. I’ve come to learn and admire so much about the amazing health agents (agents de santé) that work in and around the many malnutrition programs MFK supports.
Accessibility is a challenge in Haiti. Due to poor infrastructure, among other reasons, there are children living in rural Haiti who are in need of Medika Mamba, but remain untreated by our malnutrition partners. These health agents are often tasked with doing the foot work of going to find them. They spend hours traveling by foot, moto, tap tap (taxi), or even donkey to reach hard-to-access areas.
They complete a basic malnutrition screening and talk to families about where and when different malnutrition clinics are running. They are often the ones who guide some of the sickest babies and children to our Medika Mamba treatment programs.
At many of our partnering programs, such as the one at CHIDA Hospital, they can frequently be found supporting the nurses by helping with paperwork, and helping weigh, measure and entertain the children. For all of this we are so grateful.
Haiti reported its first case of COVID-19 in March. The potential huge impact of this pandemic in Haiti, a country with crowded conditions in housing, public transportation, and food markets, has stressed the people and systems of Haiti even more. Haiti is also without a sophisticated healthcare system, leaving its people to care for themselves. Initially, the President of Haiti shut down airports, factories, and schools to prevent the spread of the virus. In early April, the Prime Minister asked that all factories producing essential goods resume production and on April 14th, MFK resumed production of its lifesaving Medika Mamba.
MFK is committed to producing lifesaving nutritious foods for use locally and globally through export, while continuing to protect our workers and monitor their health. But, we need your help. As the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases rise in Haiti, the number of malnutrition cases will continue to rise as well. We also know that the last 18 months of social unrest has already resulted in a 30% rise in malnutrition in Haiti. As we expand our reach and go further into rural areas, we find more children in need of Medika Mamba.
Our mission is not changed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Children like Mila and Wilson need your help now more than ever. We continue to work with our partners to find and treat Haitian children in desperate need of our help. Your support enables us to step in to treat children who have no other hope.
Download our Summer 2020 mailer to read Mila and Wilson’s full stories!
COVID-19 has caused a lot of uncertainty, but MFK’s commitment to support Haitian farmers remains unchanged. Sourcing peanuts from Haitian farmers remains a top priority, and this year we expect to purchase more than 40 metric tons of peanuts from local farmers.
In June, Haitian farmers officially kicked-off a new peanut harvest season. In the North, most peanut farmers use 4-month peanut varieties (local runner and GA006G), but often farmers are limited to planting only two times per year due to the limited amount of rainfall and irrigation for their crops. In contrast, farmers in the Central Plateau and West regions use the local 3-month peanut variety (Valencia), but farmers are again restricted to only three plantings per year due to insufficient rainfall or irrigation.
In June, MFK was delighted to receive local peanuts for use in our productions of RUFs. This is considered an early harvest season because weather conditions have not allowed Haitian farmers to plant in February for the last few years. Farmers who were ready in February took advantage of the suitable weather conditions, and they are now currently harvesting. MFK received over 5 metric tons from two local suppliers that work closely with smallholder farmers: Acceso Peanut Enterprise Corporation and Premier Steppe Ferme. Acceso is a social enterprise in the Central Plateau that provides support and inputs to farmers, significantly improving peanut yields, incomes and quality. Premier Steppe Ferme is a privately owned farm located in the North of Haiti.
Sources of good quality peanuts in Haiti can be very limited. Peanut consumers in Haiti have a high risk of exposure to aflatoxin, a dangerous toxin that can lead to stunted growth, a weakened immune system or liver cancer. MFK has strict protocols in place to avoid purchasing peanuts with a high level of aflatoxin. All local peanuts are screened at the purchase point or the delivery station for aflatoxin, since contamination typically originates on the farm during the growing season or immediately after harvest. MFK training programs educate farmers about caring for their peanut plants during the growing period and also post-harvest management techniques to mitigate their risk of contamination.
As COVID-19 continues to spread around the country, many businesses and offices have been forced to shut down, resulting in more children becoming vulnerable to malnutrition. MFK’s products are needed now more than ever and it gives our team great pride to know that locally grown peanuts play such a huge part in this mission work.
Meds & Food for Kids has a dedicated and talented team of Haitian employees on-the-ground in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. During this time of COVID-19, their jobs have been more challenging and required adaptability, flexibility and ingenuity. A strong leader possessing those very qualities is MFK’s own Remenson Tenor.
Remenson is the son of a pastor and grew up in northwest Haiti in Port-de-Paix, Môles Saint Nicholas and Jean-Rabel. After completing high school, Remenson moved to Port-au-Prince to study civil engineering at the University Ruben Leconte. Remenson left Haiti temporarily to move to St. Louis, Missouri where he continued his studies at Florissant Valley Community College. He completed his bachelor’s degree in business administration at Madonna University in Michigan.
Remenson was first introduced to MFK during his time in St. Louis. After learning about MFK’s mission in Haiti to fight malnutrition, he knew MFK was an organization he wanted to work for when he returned to Haiti.
“Where I am from, I used to see a lot of kids suffering from malnutrition and if I cannot feed them myself, the best I can do is be a part of the plant that makes the product. So, for every child that is saved by our product, whether in Haiti or elsewhere, I know I am now part of making the change.”
Since joining MFK in July 2019 as the Plant Manager, Remenson has been mastering his skills supervising and coordinating the supply chain operations, ranging from procurement of goods and materials to the delivery of the finished product to MFK’s customers. He currently leads five departments: logistics, quality control, production, maintenance and peanut processing. He appreciates the opportunity to become a better manager and effective team player. Additionally, working at MFK has allowed him to push himself to the limit by learning to step up and manage crises such as fuel shortages, strikes and COVID-19 that could affect the business overall.
What’s a day-in-the-life of an MFK Plant Manager look like? Remenson starts each day reviewing the previous day’s production, any breakdowns and down times, meeting about production planning and scheduling, addressing any customer-related issues, interacting with other departments such as human resources and sales, and liaising with the MFK U.S. staff.
When he’s not working, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Cynthia, and his daughter, Abby-Gaëlle, dining out, going to the beach, singing, and dancing. Remenson likes soccer and is a big fan of the Haitian and the Brazilian soccer teams. He also enjoys cooking and might want to be a chef someday.
Remenson had this to share with MFK supporters and friends, “You should know that your support is precious for our people. Haiti is one the most beautiful countries in the region, but also the poorest. Your contributions to MFK help save lives of malnourished children, but also help uplift the economy. I really appreciate what you do and thank you all for your support.”
His favorite part of working for MFK? Remenson says, “There are many things, but contributing to saving lives, boosting the economy by training farmers and sourcing peanuts locally, and putting a smile on kids’ and parents’ faces are the things that inspire and excite me every morning I wake up. In other words, this is a good way for me to give back to my country and be an agent of change.”
Meds & Food for Kids was a proud recipient of a grant from the Lake Elmo Rotary Club in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. Grant funds were used to purchase a hand-crank peanut sheller and an aspirator.
MFK must test peanuts for aflatoxin, a dangerous group of carcinogens linked to liver damage and certain cancers when ingested. In order to test the peanuts, they must first be shelled. Prior to this grant, MFK had to hand-shell all the peanuts for inspection. This was time consuming and often required MFK to hire additional people to shell the peanuts by hand, which contributed to the high cost of procuring locally-grown peanuts in Haiti.
The Lake Elmo Rotary Club grant covered the cost of purchasing a mobile sheller and aspirator. This equipment was designed by Frank Nolin, a retired engineer who spent his career designing large-scale, commercial peanut processing equipment. Nolin, of Frank’s Designs for Peanuts, now focuses on designing technologies for use in the developing world. The hand-crank sheller and aspirator has allowed MFK to streamline its field inspections and purchasing procedures.
We hold our collective breath for the survival of all our colleagues, friends, and patients in Haiti. Our Haitian managers and workers are excelling in keeping the factory, nutrition programs and agricultural programs going strong, without our foreign staff who evacuated in March.
Currently, 18% of our Haitian employees are out with fever or other symptoms consistent with COVID-19. Thankfully, no one has died. The remaining workers have kept the factory open producing Medika Mamba/Plumpy ‘Nut for Haitian needs and for export. Our MFK nurse continues to support malnutrition clinics with Medika Mamba and by providing advice over the phone. Our agronomist continues to visit and advise smallholder farmers on better methods of peanut growing which will increase their incomes and decrease fungal contamination with aflatoxin. MFK has been buying large quantities of peanuts from Haitian farmers this week as the harvest continues.
The St. Louis team is supporting these efforts by purchasing and shipping needed supplies, holding daily phone calls to discuss problems relating to customs, peanut purchases, customer requirements, technical assistance to electrify the our new depot, and planning for solutions to our current and future power needs.
Meanwhile, there has been minimal COVID-19 testing available in Haiti and little guidance from the Ministry of Health. Most of the guidelines used in the U.S. are not feasible in Haiti. For example, there is no way to quarantine a person who has been exposed or even a person known to be infected. The majority of Haitians live in 1 or 2 rooms with 6-7 other people. There is no way to call out for groceries to be delivered at curbside or at one’s home. There is often no running water to wash hands. For food, there is a daily or every-two-day trek to a crowded market where only a few people wear masks.
It seems there is a belief among the population that COVID-19 is a hoax and that the “little fevers” that are prevalent all over the country are due to something else. At least two COVID-19 treatment centers have been set on fire, apparently in a misguided effort to staunch the spread of the virus.
Haiti’s Health Minister has now confirmed more than 1,400 cases of COVID-19 in Haiti. It’s no secret that Haiti has one of the weakest healthcare systems in the world. There are growing concerns about the ability of the Haitian government to fight the spread of COVID-19, and preserve an economy that is already very fragile.
Following the news on March 24th that two cases of the Coronavirus were discovered in Haiti, the government decided to shut down all the factories, including MFK’s factory, in order to help the fight against COVID-19. Airports and the border with the Dominican Republic, where a lot more cases were discovered, were also shut down. Thankfully, our factory resumed production in April.
Our Agriculture Team has been unable to train our farmers as we normally do. Recently, I received a call from one of our farmers wanting to know if we were planning to continue to hold our farmer trainings. I replied that it looked like we would have to stop because the government has decided to shut down all non-essential business and activities, and has formally forbidden all meetings and gatherings with more than 10 people. You could easily tell by his voice that he was disappointed. He told me that MFK’s farmer training program should be considered an essential activity because farmers are supposed to be ready to feed everyone during this difficult time. He said,
“Without farmers, there is no food and having no food is worse than COVID 19.”
I told him that he was right. The country right now needs farmers more than ever. Therefore, MFK decided to keep holding trainings with groups of 10 or fewer people. Everyone sits at least two meters apart from each other. We go over safety precautions that the farmers need to take to avoid getting and spreading the coronavirus. They always have a lot of questions about the virus and they show a lot of concerns over the lack of medical infrastructure the country is currently facing.
We also talk about topics related to agriculture including using different cropping systems. A cropping system is the management techniques used on a particular field over a period of years. Some of these cropping systems used in Haiti include:
Cropping systems is an important topic because right now food is scarce and farmers need to harvest as soon as possible to provide for their families. Most of the time, farmers have only one plot of land and they can’t afford to wait four months until they can harvest their peanuts. As a result, they practice intercropping to get food from another crop while they wait to harvest the peanuts.
In 2018, Meds & Food for Kids embarked on a journey to achieve certification of the International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO) 22000 standards. After many months of hard work and an intense two-day audit of our management systems, MFK was granted certification in ISO 22000:2005 on March 20, 2019. MFK was one of the first food processing facilities in Haiti to achieve this certification.
ISO is a worldwide federation of national standards. Through its members, it brings together experts to share knowledge and develop voluntary, consensus-based, market-relevant international standards which support innovation and provide solutions to global challenges. Certification can be a useful tool to add credibility by demonstrating that a product or service meets the expectations of your customers. For some industries, certification is a legal or contractual requirement. MFK’s largest customer, UNICEF, has strongly encouraged its suppliers to become certified.
We love Mamba! But, so much more goes on at the malnutrition programs MFK supports. Here is a quick snapshot of a few of the other services offered by MFK partners:
Referrals: As we are focused on community care, MFK doesn’t directly provide referrals. The nurses working at the clinics we support do! Through education and consultation, we work hard to help ensure the nurses can recognize when a child is too sick to be started on Medika Mamba, and know what appropriate steps to take to aid in the child’s immediate treatment. During all education sessions regarding the community-based treatment of malnutrition, we provide contact information for hospitals the children and babies can be referred to for impatient care. We have also recently created a more comprehensive directory of healthcare facilities offering free or affordable HIV and tuberculosis testing.
Screening: Each child who presents to a clinic or hospital on malnutrition program day is weighed and measured for height. This information is recorded regardless of whether or not the child is found to be malnourished. The data collected is used by the Haitian government and other non-government organizations to track rates of malnutrition in-country.
MFK has been very busy working through the recent shutdown in Haiti and in the U.S. due to the COVID-19 pandemic. MFK complied with the Haitian government’s order in early April to cease operations at the factory, but was given special permission to resume production the week of April 6th. While operating at a reduced capacity, MFK still produced more than 3,200 boxes of Medika Mamba by the end of the second week. Our employees remain healthy and are taking precautionary measures to ensure we continue to maintain the highest safety and health standards at the factory.
Hope Health Action (HHA), a neighbor of MFK, is currently preparing to open a COVID-19 isolation ward at their hospital. We have been able to assist their efforts by loaning HHA a generator to ensure they will have reliable electricity for powering oxygen concentrators in the unit.
Masks are in short supply globally. Our employees at the factory are required to use them to meet food manufacturing safety standards while producing lifesaving Medika Mamba. To comply with CDC guidance, employees wear masks while being transported to and from work in MFK vehicles each day.
