Gary Brandenburger, of Florissant, Missouri, began supporting Meds and Food for Kids in 2007 as an early board member. When asked this winter to help fund a new position, he did not hesitate. Gary and his wife, Carla Duncan, and three other founding board members came together to give MFK the ability to hire a community health worker.

The community health worker will travel to remote areas to find malnourished children and refer them to clinics. They will check back to make sure they have been treated and cured, and then return in three to six months to visit them and assess their family situations to see whether they might become malnourished again.

Carla also supports MFK because she is “in awe of how Dr. Pat Wolff operates.” Carla calls Dr. Wolff an inspiration and a humble servant. 

When Gary started on the board, Dr. Wolff and her team were grinding peanuts in a rented house in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. He was on the board when the factory was built.  

“The board was all the right people doing the right things,” he says.

Those same people continue to do the right thing as they contribute to the future of Haiti and MFK. 

From Aid Recipients to Local Producers

The Next Phase of U.S. Food Assistance

April 17, 2026
Chris Greene, CEO, Meds & Food for Kids

I’ve spent more than a decade building certified nutrition manufacturing in Haiti. Local production in a fragile state is slower than shipping from the U.S. It requires disciplined quality systems, workforce development, and infrastructure investment – with no immediate political reward.

But when it works, it changes the equation. Communities shift from recipients to producers. Supply chains get anchored locally. Institutional competence builds. Dependency shrinks.

That shift isn’t just humanitarian. It’s strategic.

A System Built for a Different World

The United States has responded to global hunger the same way since 1954. The Food for Peace Act solved two real problems simultaneously — hunger abroad and agricultural surplus at home — and it has endured because it built a durable political coalition: farmers, millers, mariners, ports, and aid agencies all with skin in the game.

That system has saved lives. It is also highly effective at moving food — and far less effective at reducing the need to move it. It wasn’t designed for a world where 673 million people are chronically undernourished, 60-70% of the food-insecure live in conflict-affected countries, and the average displacement now exceeds a decade.

We are no longer primarily responding to short-term crop failure. We are operating inside long-term fragility — weak institutions, broken markets, conflict economies, and climate volatility layered on top of one another.

Different Problem. Different Tool.

Acute famine requires surge logistics. 

Fifteen-year fragility requires something different.

The capacity for crisis response must stay intact. When famine hits, the United States needs to move American commodities rapidly and at scale. That capability is strategic infrastructure — it should be treated like a reserve, clearly defined, funded, and deliberately maintained.

But crisis response capacity alone is not a strategy for chronic instability. And chronic instability is the dominant operating environment.

This is not an argument for dismantling what works. It is an argument for evolving it.

Modernization means preserving strong funding levels. It also means expanding procurement flexibility where the evidence supports it — pairing U.S. commodities for acute emergencies with certified, standards-driven regional and local manufacturing in protracted contexts. 

Local manufacturing carries real risk: governance risk, quality risk, political risk. So does permanent dependency. We just don’t measure it the same way. Localizing production is not a retreat from American interests. It is how you protect them.

It’s also geopolitical.

Food Security is National Security

China’s Belt and Road Initiative has deployed over a trillion dollars to embed influence through infrastructure and supply chains. Food systems are part of that strategy. Countries that cannot produce, process, or control their own food supply remain strategically vulnerable.

If U.S. assistance reinforces long-term import dependency without building production capacity where feasible, we are financing consumption and calling it stability.

The downstream effects are predictable: fragile food systems generate migration pressure, migration pressure becomes domestic political pressure, and domestic political pressure reshapes foreign policy. Food security is not only humanitarian. It is national security.

From Response to Strategy

The real choice isn’t between American farmers and foreign factories. It never was.

The real choice is whether U.S. food assistance remains a permanent response pipeline — or becomes a strategy.

Protect the capacity for crisis response. 

Deploy commodities for acute emergencies. 

Build certified regional and local capacity in protracted contexts — to reduce the frequency of those emergencies in the first place.

The humanitarian system was designed to respond. The next phase must also build — or we will continue financing permanent responses in environments that never stabilize. That is not a rejection of what has worked. It is an adaptation to the world we are actually operating in. 

The capability exists. Expanding Local and Regional Procurement policy to recognize certified local manufacturing in protracted contexts is a logical next step.

March 22, 2026

March is Women’s History Month, and we are privileged to have had so many talented Haitian women on our team throughout MFK’s 22 years. Today, 28 women in Haiti make our mission possible by training farmers, producing lifesaving foods, treating malnourished children, and more.

“Resilience is the best word to describe Haitian women; on many occasions, they have proven to be the best example of strength.”

– Aminata Blanc, MFK Human Resource Manager

2026 is also the Year of the Woman Farmer. In the past year, a record 355 women participated in MFK’s agriculture training program, and more continue to join and learn. These women are not only farmers – they are businesswomen, mothers, and engaged community members making a difference by strengthening food systems.

As more women continue developing farming skills in Haiti, more families will have access to food, more jobs will be created, and fewer children will be malnourished. By becoming agricultural leaders, Haitian women are shaping the future.

“Women are a stabilizing force in a significant number of Haitian communities. They are the rock of their families.”

– Chris Greene, MFK CEO

To all the women of MFK and Haiti, mèsi anpil!

Localization: The Operational Heart of the Humanitarian–Development Nexus

Chris Greene, CEO

Across the humanitarian landscape, there is growing recognition that relief and development cannot exist in isolation. Crises last longer, recovery takes years, and the boundary between emergency response and long-term progress has blurred. This convergence has come to be known as the humanitarian–development nexus – a framework that seeks coherence between the urgency of saving lives and the necessity of building systems that sustain them.

But the nexus only becomes meaningful when it takes form on the ground. The question is not whether humanitarian and development actors should work together; it is how they do so. The answer lies in one word that too often sits at the margins of global debate: localization.

Localization is the mechanism that determines whether the nexus delivers resilience or reproduces dependency. It defines who owns a system, who is accountable for it, and who benefits from it once external actors step back.

Why Localization Matters

For decades, humanitarian and development programs have operated through parallel structures – different mandates, funding streams, and expectations. Each has its logic: humanitarian action prioritizes speed and control; development focuses on institution-building and growth. Yet the divide between them has shaped how resources are allocated and how success is measured, often with unintended consequences.

When external systems remain in charge for too long, they can weaken the very capacity they were meant to strengthen. Aid that substitutes for local institutions – rather than supporting them – creates parallel systems that bypass governance, distort markets, and evaporate once funding ends. The result is predictable: progress becomes tied to continued outside involvement.

The problem is not intent. Many of these structures were designed for postwar reconstruction and Cold War stability. They were built for control, not transition; for predictability, not partnership. Over time, they have become maladaptive – effective within their original context but misaligned with today’s realities of protracted crises and interconnected economies.

Localization challenges that architecture. It replaces parallelism with partnership and control with collaboration. It is the operational path that allows the humanitarian–development nexus to move from policy language to practical reality.

Localization as the Test of Authenticity

Nearly every institution now claims to “bridge relief and development.” The test of authenticity is who drives the process.

When systems are planned and governed primarily by foreign actors, they may achieve short-term results but seldom create long-term capability. That is not bridging – it is managed dependency.

True bridging happens when local leadership holds real decision-making power, when communities help design and deliver the solutions that affect them, and when accountability is internal rather than imported.

Localization isn’t defined by where an organization works – it’s defined by who it belongs to.

This is what distinguishes humanitarian programs that build resilience from those that entrench reliance.

A Bridge, Not a Substitute

In fragile contexts, the line between substitution and support is thin but crucial. Sometimes a system must be temporarily reinforced from the outside to prevent total collapse. The danger lies not in doing so, but in failing to plan how to hand it back.

Haiti offers a clear example. When Meds & Food for Kids (MFK) began partnering with the Haitian Ministry of Public Health (MSPP) and UNICEF to provide last-mile distribution to government clinics, it did so because essential supplies were not reaching communities. Warehouses had become bottlenecks; children were going untreated.

MFK stepped in not to replace the MSPP food and nutrition system, led by Dr. Joseline Marhone Pierre, but to help preserve it – to keep it functional long enough to reform. Dr. Marhone has been instrumental in the success of the production of ready-to-use therapeutic food in Haiti. The initiative pairs MFK’s logistics with Dr. Marhone’s oversight, data integration, and staff participation, so that capacity grows alongside service delivery.

That distinction matters. A parallel system replaces; a bridging system stabilizes and transitions. The measure of success is whether dependency decreases each year and whether the system’s ownership becomes more Haitian, more public, and more sustainable.

Making the Nexus Work

If the humanitarian–development nexus describes what must happen, localization describes how. It converts abstract coordination into operational alignment. Implementing it requires four commitments:

1. Local leadership with decision authority.

Those closest to the problem understand it best. External partners should serve as technical advisors and investors – not commanders.

2. Investment that strengthens existing systems.

Building new structures is easier than reforming old ones, but reform is what endures. Support must reinforce local supply chains, enterprises, and governance rather than displace them.

3. Partnerships that plan for transition.

A genuine transition plan defines who leaves and who leads. Foreign organizations should not remain at the center of a system indefinitely; their role is to support local actors until they can step back entirely. A responsible partnership begins with a commitment to hand over decision-making power, resources, and operational control to local institutions, so the system ultimately belongs to the people it serves – not to those who temporarily helped build it.

4. Freedom to fail and to learn.

Ownership means risk. Local actors need the same room to experiment – and err – that international agencies have long enjoyed. Without that freedom, there is no genuine agency.

When these principles guide action, humanitarian response and development programming no longer compete for relevance; they function as stages of the same process.

Rebalancing Incentives

Localization cannot thrive within systems that reward continuity over transition. Donor frameworks often measure success by volume – tons of food moved, households reached, funds disbursed – rather than by the durability of outcomes.

Real reform means aligning incentives with resilience. Funding metrics should track things like:

• The percentage of resources managed through local institutions
• The proportion of goods procured locally or regionally
• The functionality of systems one, three, and five years after external funding ends

If these indicators improve, the nexus is working – not in rhetoric, but in results.

From Dependency to Dignity

At its heart, localization is about dignity. Poverty is not a lack of potential; it is a lack of opportunity and control. When communities have authority over the systems that shape their lives, they gain both.

Humanitarian aid will always be necessary in moments of crisis. But when it is localized – when it builds local capacity and transfers ownership – it becomes more than emergency relief. It becomes a seed of development.

That is the promise of the humanitarian–development nexus fulfilled:

• Relief that protects life
• Development that sustains it
• Localization that connects the two

The future of humanitarian action depends on this shift – from systems built for people to systems built by them.

When we localize leadership, we don’t just make aid more efficient; we make it more just. And when aid becomes justice, resilience follows.

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Solving the Bottleneck: MFK’s New Facility Ensures Lifesaving Supplies Reach Haitian Families

Meds & Food for Kids (MFK) has significantly increased its capacity in 2025, taking on the critical role of warehousing and distributing essential humanitarian supplies for UNICEF and the Haitian Ministry of Public Health (MSPP). MFK is now storing and distributing all therapeutic food, medical, and hygiene supplies throughout Haiti for the two major partners. This comes after MFK built a new warehouse and perimeter wall at its factory site in Cap-Haitien, Haiti.

“MFK continues to deliver on our mission to save lives and transform futures, and warehousing and distribution provide new sources of revenue to increase our impact,”  says Chris Greene, chief executive officer of Meds & Food for Kids. 

An anonymous donor financed the construction of the warehouse and perimeter wall.

“In a period of heightened instability, the new perimeter wall has provided greater security. This has been invaluable – not just for staff morale – but also for building confidence among our partners and stakeholders,” says Remenson Tenor, chief operating officer of MFK. 

The World Food Programme, UNICEF, and MSPP now view MFK’s Cap-Haitien site as one of the safest and most strategically sound locations in the country for warehousing and transport operations. 

“Partners know MFK for its ability to deliver supplies the last mile to remote communities,” Greene says. “MFK excels at last-mile distribution because we are locally led.”

Before the MSPP and UNICEF asked for help with last-mile distribution, essential supplies were not reaching government clinics. Warehouses had become bottlenecks; children were going untreated. 

“MFK stepped in not to replace the Haitian food and nutrition system, led by Dr. Joseline Marhone Pierre, but to help preserve it – to keep it functional long enough to reform,” Greene says. “The initiative pairs MFK’s logistics with government oversight, data integration, and staff participation so that capacity grows alongside service delivery.”

While expanding service to Haitian families through last-mile distribution, MFK’s top priority continues to be treating starving children with ready-to-use therapeutic food for severely malnourished children. MFK has fed more than one million children and mothers since its founding in 2003.

MFK CEO Chris Greene Joins International Experts to Spotlight Locally Driven School Feeding

At the 2025 World Food Prize Foundation’s Norman E. Borlaug International Dialogue, Chris Greene, CEO of Meds & Food for Kids, joined an international panel of experts to explore how localized development solutions can feed more of the world’s children.

The panel was titled: “Hunger Hotspots and the Humanitarian Development Nexus: Agricultural Research and School Feeding for Global Stability.”

Fellow panelists included: 

• Rev. Eugene Cho, President/CEO, Bread for the World, Moderator
• Amir Mahmoud Abdulla, Commissioner, Kofi Annan Commission on Food Security
• Ibnou Dieng, Director of Strategic Planning and Chief of Staff, IITA
• Marekh Khmaladze, Head of the Data and Monitoring Initiative of the School Meals Coalition, United Nations World Food Programme

Chris discussed the importance of locally driven, nutrition-sensitive approaches in humanitarian settings to strengthen both immediate and long-term solutions. Key points included:

• Humanitarian aid is important in acute crises, but can create dependency if it persists without addressing underlying systemic issues. Locally sourced and produced solutions are critical to build resilience and sustainability.
• Partnerships and collaboration are key to developing resilient, long-term solutions that build local capacity. Initiatives like school feeding programs can create critical infrastructure and support local economies.
• Nuance, curiosity, and humility are needed to avoid assuming that solutions that work in one context will automatically translate to another. Addressing the complexity of these challenges requires comprehensive, multi-layered approaches.

“In fragile settings, the nexus of humanitarian aid and development is where we translate compassion into actual resilience,” Chris said. “We need to look at things like school meals as not just charity, but as the creation of the infrastructure that is needed for a better tomorrow.”

“Agriculture is not peripheral to peace. It is actually peace in motion. We need to pursue the policies and activities that actually achieve the outcomes children need,” he added.

“When we’re facing these complex problems, we need to acknowledge that they require comprehensive solutions, that they should be humanitarian when needed, always developmental by design and local at every level,” Chris concluded.

MFK Founder Patricia Wolff, MD, receives Top Agri-food Pioneer Award

The World Food Prize Foundation honored Meds & Food for Kids (MFK) founder Patricia B. Wolff, MD, as a 2025 Top Agri-food Pioneer (TAP). She is the first and only physician to receive the award. This year’s 39 award winners also include visionary scientists, farmers, policy advisors, entrepreneurs, and humanitarians who drive bold and innovative solutions to the most pressing challenges in global food security. The Borlaug Field Award Ceremony took place during the World Food Prize Foundation events. A replay is available on the World Food Prize Foundation Youtube channel.

“Our entire team is grateful for this international recognition. In Haiti, our team has proven that innovation and locally led solutions combine to save lives, build resilience, and strengthen the local economy—even in the toughest conditions,” said Dr. Wolff.

In a country facing chronic malnutrition and instability, the MFK team has developed an internationally recognized model of sustainable, locally led development that incorporates agricultural innovation, local manufacturing, and nutrition science. MFK produces and provides last-mile delivery of ready-to-use therapeutic (RUTF) and supplemental foods in Haiti.

Dr. Wolff founded MFK in 2003 to address the suffering and deaths of children from malnutrition that she witnessed in Haiti. A pediatrician and clinical professor of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Dr. Wolff began building a transformative agricultural-nutritional model that saves lives today while building sustainable food systems for tomorrow.

“This well-deserved recognition of Dr. Wolff’s early vision and lifelong work comes at a time when the international development community is searching for innovations that can deliver practical, achievable results,” said Chris Greene, CEO of Meds & Food for Kids. “Effective local solutions like MFK’s are the most direct way to save children and the best path forward for global food security.”

“Getting it to them is the hard part”

Scripps • May 14, 2025

Click to read the article

We recently talked with Scripps News about how Meds & Food for Kids is treating malnourished children in Haiti.

Check out the article and video for an inside look at our factory operations & clinic partnerships, which help make MFK a “rare symbol of hope.”