Lincoln News
Posted by Sue Foster
PEANUT BUTTER CURES
On August 2, 2016 Rotary Club of Lincoln welcomed guest speaker, Ralph Spencer from the Sun Up Rotary Club of Palm Springs, California. His topic was Project Peanut Butter, something he knows a lot about. Each year, 3.5 million kids die with SAM: Severe Acute Malnutrition across the globe. Their brains and bodies do not develop properly. 80% of Somalian children die of SAM.The Peanut Butter Project supplies " ready to use therapeutic food" Dr. Mark Mineri was working with children in Malowi. He was trying to cure their malnutrition using a milk product. From the product Nutella, he came up with the idea of a product made of peanut butter, sugar, vitamins and minerals. It did not need to be cooked or refrigerated and could be transported by mothers and fed in small amounts. Immediately, upon using this new product his success rate rose from 25% TO 95 %.
The project has been started in a few countries, but recently Rotary has taken the Peanut Butter project to Ghana with the goal of giving it to 50,000 children every day. Rotary International has just approved a global grant of $177,851.00 to two Rotary Clubs in Ghana. The project is sustainable. The product is grown by local farmers, produced and manufactured locally, and individuals are trained to dispense it locally. It is fed to children from 6 months to 6 years three times a day. (one spoonful at a time).