like climate change and war feel Sisyphean, but hunger is not: we already have “elegant, cheap” solutions. While reporting across West Africa on my annual win-a-trip fellowship, worms, anemia and empty stomachs shadow us in every village — even though each child could be dewormed for $1 a year. One billion kids still carry parasites because funding priorities lag behind the science.
At a rural Sierra Leone clinic we meet 13-month-old Abukamara, skeletal and covered in sores. His rescue is a single daily sachet of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) — a peanut-based paste branded Plumpy’Nut. Cost: about $1 per child per day. Factories in Rhode Island and Georgia churn out these packets, keeping millions alive — or did, until U.S. orders abruptly stopped.
After President Trump shuttered USAID, some 185,000 boxes of RUTF sit idle at Edesia Nutrition’s warehouse, says founder Navyn Salem. No new federal purchase orders have arrived in 2025, threatening hard-won gains: Sierra Leone had slashed child mortality largely by distributing this very paste.
The World Bank estimates a $23 return for every dollar invested in nutrition. Few hedge funds promise that yield.
Child deaths under five have fallen by half since 2000 thanks to vaccines, oral-rehydration therapy — and nutrition. Yet Washington skipped the 2025 Nutrition for Growth summit and is no longer committed to host the next. After decades leading the fight, the U.S. risks abandoning the field at the very moment victory is within reach.
Starving children do not cry; their bodies conserve energy for vital organs. Heads still, eyes follow quietly, asking whether we will act. Mr. Trump, will we?
Leave a Comments