Bezos $137M gift to Rhode Island based Edesia transformational in making malnutrition history

This gift will double Edesia’s production and ensure a nutrient-packed food, Plumpy’Nut, can do for malnutrition what penicillin did for infections.

This generous gift from the Bezos Family includes a $10 million matching fund to be launched on Giving Tuesday, November 28.

Every 11 seconds a child dies from malnutrition despite it being a preventable condition. The increase in climate catastrophes, conflicts and economic disruptions has exacerbated malnutrition around the world. Edesia’s crisis solution is: Plumpy’Nut, a nutrient-packed food that has a 92% success rate for curing severe acute malnutrition in as little as eight weeks.

Edesia Nutrition, a nonprofit social enterprise that produces Plumpy’Nut for millions of children in more than 60 countries, is now poised to double its production and champion a focus on prevention.

Thanks to a transformational gift from the Bezos family, Edesia will help save millions of lives — making malnutrition history.

“Ending malnutrition isn’t just a slogan. It’s our plan,” explains Navyn Salem, Edesia founder and CEO. “There are many problems in the world that we don’t know how to solve. Malnutrition is not one of them. We know what we need to do: Get life-saving food to children who are acutely malnourished or are at risk of becoming so. Thanks to this gift, Edesia is positioned to do just that. We can take these resources and mount a global malnutrition effort so that children don’t die from this preventable condition.”

Since 2010, Edesia’s dedicated and experienced team, from 25 countries, has been operating around the clock to produce life-saving foods that target the different stages of malnutrition. Partnering with humanitarian aid organizations like USAID, UNICEF and the World Food Programme, Edesia has saved 22 million lives to date and serves 5 million children annually. It will now be able to double its impact and reach 10 million children every year because of this gift.

“More healthy and well-nourished kids mean a bright future for all of us and this investment in Edesia will allow them to reach even more children with this life-saving intervention,” said Mike Bezos.

With this generous gift – one of the biggest single donations to fight malnutrition – Edesia will be:

1. Making more nutrition-packed food to save lives. Edesia will double its capacity and lower prices by expanding its facility in Rhode Island to include more storage capacity, rail access, and production lines. Edesia will also add a minimum of 50 new jobs.

2. Championing a focus on preventing malnutrition.Reaching children earlier, before they become severely malnourished, is critical. We cannot wait until children are weeks away from dying. Edesia will advocate for critical policy and protocol changes, invest in innovative new products, support research around prevention, and add production lines.

3. Urging governments to take the issue of malnutrition seriously. When the war in Ukraine cut off major food supply chains, it was a major wake-up call for many governments around the world. Climate change, conflict, and poverty impact food security every day. Edesia will continue to push global leaders to invest in sustainable and long-term approaches to meeting this challenge.

Changing Malnutrition in the world

Edesia notes that “Malnutrition is a serious condition that occurs when a diet does not contain enough nutrients. Globally, it’s estimated that at least 45 million (one in three) children under-five are malnourished.

How Plumpy’Nut changed the treatment of malnourished children

There once was a time when treating severely malnourished children was a hopeless endeavor. Children had to stay in hospitals for weeks, and the milk powder-based formulas they needed to survive were costly and impractical. Portable, ready-to-eat, shelf-stable Plumpy’Nut changed everything: no need to find clean water or refrigeration, hospital beds freed up as children could be treated at home.

What is Plumpy’Nut?

Plumpy’Nut is the core of a few lines of malnutrition products produced by Edesia.

Plumpy’Nut:

• Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF)
• 92g individual sachet [500 kcal]
• Treatment of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM)
• For children 6 months of age and older
• Average treatment duration: 6 to 10 weeks
• 1-3 sachets/day/child

A Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food

Peanut-based Plumpy’Nut is a formulation based on F-100 milk powder and complies with the World Health Organization’s definition of RUTF.

It is primarily distributed through Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) programs throughout the world—where home-based feeding with RUTF is prescribed by a medical professional working within the local health system.

About Edesia’s Naven Salem:

About Edesia

Edesia is a nonprofit social enterprise with one goal: to end malnutrition. Our team of 150 people from 25 countries around the globe works night and day to produce life-saving foods for malnourished children in partnership with humanitarian agencies working in emergency and conflict zones. To learn more, visit edesianutrition.org.

Edesia Nutrition is headquartered in North Kingstown, Rhode Island