MFK Blog

Nestle S.A., the parent company of Nestle Purina PetCare, shared some amazing news with us this week. The company is generously donating approximately $280,000 to Meds & Food for Kids, supporting our work to save the lives of Haiti’s malnourished children and our commitment to long-term development. This donation is on top of the company’s worldwide donation efforts for Haiti, with employee and company donations already totaling more than $2 million in cash and products. We are so grateful to Nestle for this contribution. It will go a long way in supporting the increased production and distribution of life-saving, nutritious food in Haiti. In addition, it will help us fund Haiti’s future, with a new facility designed for safe food processing and large-scale production.   

MFK Director, Dr. Wolff with Betsy Cohen, Vice President, Sustainability/Animal Welfare, Nestle Purina PetCare

Click here  to read the St. Louis Business Journal coverage of this news.

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Meds & Food for Kids saves the lives of Haiti's malnourished children by producing and distributing highly nutritious foods, including Medika Mamba, a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food endorsed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Because of its commitment to Haiti's long-term development, MFK produces Medika Mamba in Haiti, with Haitian labor, and with many Haitian raw materials.

On February 18, 2010 KSDK's Casey Nolen highlighted MFK's holistic development efforts. Nolen spent about two weeks in the aftermath of the quake chronicling events in northern Haiti. 

To read the full story at KSDK click here. 

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St. Louisans Working to Feed and Teach in Haiti

By Casey Nolen

KSDK -- Even before an influx of earthquake victims were airlifted in for medical treatment at Hospital Sacre Coeur, many in rural Milot, Haiti were already living crisis. With no industry to speak of most grow or raise what they eat and most don't have enough.

Doctors at Sacre Coeur estimate that children in Milot have about a one in four chance of dying before the age of two from hunger. And the story is much the same across all of Haiti. Before the earthquake, an estimated 250,000 children were living with malnutrition -- a number now expected to rise.

But about an hour's drive from Milot, in the city of Cap Haitian, an organization founded by a St. Louisan is working to reverse the rate of hunger and help those it can harm the most.

"Children under two who are malnourished are forever brain damaged and they have to be rescued as soon as possible and somebody's got to do it," says Washington Universitypediatrician Dr. Patricia Wolff, who leads an effort called Meds & Food For Kids.

In a house turned factory, MFK churns out highly enriched peanut butter known as Medika Mamba at a rate of more than 13 tons a month. With a long shelf life and no need for cooking, it can save a starving child's life in a matter of weeks.

"We've been making it really fast to give to people like Milot who could use it for the post-op patients even if they don't have any mal nourished children," says Dr. Wolff.

But this effort began long before the earthquake. Dr. Wolff has worked in Haiti for more than six years, with a long term commitment to long lasting change.

"The future is not in rescue," she says. "The future is in development."

Most of the ingredients for Medika Mamba come from Haiti which allows Dr. Wolff's operation to hire and educate local workers and train local farmers.

"Before they started working for us six years ago they hadn't seen running water or electricity," says Dr. Wolff.

"Nobody's invested in agriculture in this country since the end of the colonial period," says Jamie Rhoads, who works with MKF training farmers. "So their production methods are stone aged. They've got a machete and a hoe and bad seed and they do the best they can."

Meeting the immediate needs for food, and investing in a people that Wolff's says would rather learn than be rescued repeatedly.

"Oh yeah, for sure, we're making a lot of difference. But we're not anywhere near the end. We really have to pour a lot more effort in to it," says Wolff. "And we invite everyone everywhere to come and help us do it because it's a big, big, big job."

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Meds & Food for Kids saves the lives of Haiti's malnourished children by producing and distributing highly nutritious foods, including Medika Mamba, a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food endorsed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Because of its commitment to Haiti's long-term development, MFK produces Medika Mamba in Haiti, with Haitian labor, and with many Haitian raw materials.

Dr. Pat Wolff and others from the Meds & Food for Kids team are on the ground in Cap-Haitian, approximately 150 miles north of Port-au-Prince. They’ve been providing regular updates via email on their efforts to get Medika Mamba into the hands of those who need it most. On Wednesday, Dr. Wolff provided a glimpse into the new reality of MFK’s work in post-quake Haiti. 

In Port au Prince, the smell of bodies is everywhere. Finding food and water is a daily struggle. Our coordinator, Papillon, briefly went to Miami to receive treatment for his arm injury and then returned to Port au Prince to help out as best he can. He has led us to groups of people who are under the radar of the big relief agencies, but need help finding food. One kilogram of Medika Mamba can feed five kids for a day. So far we have distributed the equivalent of 25,000 child days of food.

We’ve been attending various meetings with the UN and the Haitian government once or twice a week in Cap-Haitien where we hear rumors and some actual facts, but it’s only a week or so later that we’re able to figure out which is which. For example, we heard that the U.S. Navy was taking over the port of Cap-Haitien. That was two weeks ago and it has not happened. Then we heard that the capital and the government of Haiti were moving to Cap-Haitien to occupy the new buildings that were built for the Cap-Haitien government just outside of town. That does not seem to be happening either.

We also heard that huge tent cities were going to be built for Port au Prince refugees. That does not seem to be materializing. Incredibly thousands and thousands of refugees have just been incorporated into the homes and life of the city. School just reopened this week.

Sacre Coeur Hospital in Milot, founded and funded by CRUDEM, has done an extraordinary job of bringing in the necessary resources and professionals to respond to the medical needs after the earthquake. They have expanded capacity by converting the lobby to accommodate patient beds, converting a nearby school into a hospital and setting up a tent city of MASH-like tents for patient care. To supply this huge operation they have successfully imported tons of medical supplies.

Because of the large number of spinal cord injuries that happened in the quakes, Sacre Coeur has many patients with quadriplegia or paraplegia. After several weeks, any improvements among these patients will happen very slowly. A newly built and never used UK Baptist hospital about 10 miles from Sacre Coeur offered to open their facility for the longer-term care of these spinal cord patients. They had no equipment or supplies though -- just space, beds, doctors and nurses. I offered to go to Milot to find whether there were medical supplies available for sharing.

I found an American nun who is also a pediatric ER doctor at Johns Hopkins whom I have known for a few years. She introduced me to Celia, who offered to make all of my dreams come true. Celia walked me through tent after tent and outdoor pile after pile of antibiotics, wound dressings, IV paraphernalia, bladder catheters, etc. etc.

MFK Director Dr. Wolff choosing medical supplies to take to the quadriplegic unit

I was loading all of this into the Meds & Food for Kids Toyota when the Medical Director of Sacre Coeur hospital asked me what I was doing. I explained that I was helping to supply the hospital where the Sacre Coeur spinal cord injured patients were being transferred for long term care. After a few minutes of discussion, it was clear that he was generally feeling that his authority was being usurped by this invasion of do-gooder American and UK doctors and nurses. Of course he wanted to share, but he was responsible for all of these imports and he needed me to make a list of what I was taking. This was very reasonable and I complied. Then we took off for the drive to the brand new, never-been-used UK Baptist Hospital with our loot.

Truck loaded with medical supplies en route to the UK Babtist Hospital

When we arrived, there were four spinal cord injured patients in air conditioning!!! And two more in an ambulance on the way. We unloaded and stacked the boxes, had a short discussion with the doctor and nurses and took off. If I can’t find a rehabilitation specialist to write some protocols for treatment of these patients, I guess I will be writing the protocols to help the Haitian doctors out. Are there any such specialists looking for a trip to the tropics immediately?

MFK Director Dr. Wolff delivering medications and other needed supplies

On the way back to the factory, we stopped at the orphanage and school of the Sisters Salesian de Don Bosco. The sisters arrived on our doorstep a week ago because they needed food. We sent a letter to the logistics guy at the World Food Program and that did the trick. So this week the sisters returned with their water problems. Seems that everybody gets a stomach ache from their well and they cannot afford to buy bottled water. Luckily, we have volunteer Jerome Flogel here. Jerome took the opportunity to briefly escape from Duluth, MN where he is a water consultant and a diesel mechanic specialist. He’s been completely overhauling our two Toyota trucks and mentoring our Haitian mechanic.

We put Jerome on the nuns’ water case and he is now discerning whether the well is infected or just has very high mineral content. We are all happy to be of service and the nuns are delighted.

With deep gratitude for the huge support that we have received from all of you,
 
Pat

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Meds & Food for Kids saves the lives of Haiti's malnourished children by producing and distributing highly nutritious foods, including Medika Mamba, a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food endorsed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Because of its commitment to Haiti's long-term development, MFK produces Medika Mamba in Haiti, with Haitian labor, and with many Haitian raw materials.

St. Louis on the Air host Don Marsh interviewed MFK's Tom Stehl during the show "St. Louisans in Haiti."  The other guests, Dr. Lora Iannotti, Assistant Professor of Public Health at Washington University's Brown School of Social Work, and Charles Gulas, Dean of the School of Health Profession at Maryville University, discussed their experiences in Port-au-Prince during and after the devastating earthquake.

To listen to the broadcast, click here.

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Meds & Food for Kids saves the lives of Haiti's malnourished children by producing and distributing highly nutritious foods, including Medika Mamba, a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food endorsed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Because of its commitment to Haiti's long-term development, MFK produces Medika Mamba in Haiti, with Haitian labor, and with many Haitian raw materials.

On January 18, we shared news that we feared a container was lost that included many of the raw materials necessary to make Medika Mamba. This container had arrived by ship just three days before the devastating earthquake. It contained supplies of milk powder, vegetable oil, shipping boxes, and a small quantity of donated peanut paste.

Early reports after the quake showed the Port-au-Prince seaport was completely destroyed. Media coverage and correspondence with our shipping company stoked our fears. We immediately raced to replace the materials and prevent any stockouts, thus ensuring we could meet the increasing demand for Medika Mamba and treat the growing number of malnourished children. Our valued suppliers demonstrated their support for the quake victims and generously replaced the contents free of charge. 
 
On Wednesday, January 27, we received the incredible news that our container of materials not only survived the quake, but had been expedited through Haitian customs. On Monday morning, February 1, we received the container in Cap-Haitien. The cavalry arrived!

MFK employee Jean-Marie Petition unloads an incoming bag of raw materials

From the perspective of Sandra Koch, Meds & Food for Kids’ shipping representative, “It is an absolute miracle. Your container had been written off.”

MFK's Stanley Fils-Aime loads fresh supplies of milk powder into the depot 

We went back to each of our suppliers and shared the good news that we had recovered this container. Keeping with the spirit of generosity, all of them have said MFK can keep all of the donated materials. Thanks to these donations, we are in a stronger position to sustain our increased production schedule. We are working as quickly as we can to get our life-saving food into the hands of Haiti’s malnourished children and others who are vulnerable after the quake.

MFK's fully stocked raw material depot in Cap-Haitien

Please join us in thanking the following suppliers for their generosity and support:  Fortitech (vitamins/minerals), Smurfit-Stone (shipping boxes), the U.S. Dairy Export Council (milk powder), Land O'Lakes (milk powder), Darigold/James Farrell (milk powder), Hoogwegt (milk powder), Stratas Foods (vegetable oil), International Food Products (vegetable oil and milk powder), Golden Peanuts, the American Peanut Council, Lance Snacks (peanut paste), and Fresh King (warehouse space). A special note of gratitude to Sally Wells (Birdsong Peanuts) and Stephanie Grunenfelder (American Peanut Council) for their tremendous leadership and inspiring generosity during these adverse times.

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Meds & Food for Kids saves the lives of Haiti's malnourished children by producing and distributing highly nutritious foods, including Medika Mamba, a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food endorsed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Because of its commitment to Haiti's long-term development, MFK produces Medika Mamba in Haiti, with Haitian labor, and with many Haitian raw materials.

During the past two weeks, we’ve been amazed by the number of people who have contacted us, wanting to join in the fight to save the lives of Haiti’s malnourished children after the quake. We’re grateful for every bit of support, but it’s always inspiring when young people want to contribute. Several schools and youth groups have asked us what their kids can do for the citizens of Haiti. One of the fastest and easiest ways for kids to raise funds is to host a coin drive. To help make it as easy as possible for these groups, we created a turnkey fundraising program called “Coins for Haiti’s Kids.”
 
If you’re thinking of ways to raise money for Haiti, please consider “Coins for Haiti’s Kids.” We’ve put together all the materials you’ll need to get started. This includes an overview of the fundraiser and who will benefit from your efforts, a fact sheet on the serious issue of childhood malnutrition in Haiti and what MFK is doing to save children’s lives, and a letter to send to parents explaining it all. We also created pre-made labels so all you need to do is print them out and stick them onto a jar or plastic container.   
 
Thanks for considering “Coin for Kids.” Your support goes toward more than just short-term rescue. It goes toward rebuilding Haiti for the long-term.

For information sheet, click here.

For pre-made labels, click here.