UNICEF FieldNotes » therapeutic food

On the ground with UNICEF: Providing nourishment to 69,000 children in Mauritania

UNICEF USA — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 18:21:36 +0000

If you’ve been visiting our website, you know we’ve written a lot about the ongoing food crisis in the Sahel. A million children’s lives are at risk, and UNICEF and partners are working tirelessly to help them survive. But if you’re like me, you've probably wondered what that work on the ground actually looks like. We recently received photos from Mauritania, and we thought we would share them with you, so you can take a closer look at UNICEF's work in the field.

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Helping the children of Mali

Annette Apitz, UNICEF USA — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 16:53:45 +0000

This week America celebrates its independence. But many people in the world do not even enjoy the most basic freedoms, like having a place to live, food to eat, clean water to drink and access to healthcare. If you’ve been visiting our website, you know that the Sahel region in Africa is a place where even the most basic needs for survival are not being met. UNICEF has been tracking the situation in Mali and the rest of the Sahel region and is doing everything it can to save the children and families of Mali. Here is some of the work that UNICEF has been doing.

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Q and A with an innovator of lifesaving therapeutic food

UNICEF USA — Thu, 17 May 2012 18:45:38 +0000

In the world of nutrition, Professor Michael Golden is something of a celebrity. He is famous for his work developing Formula 100 (F-100), which is the basis for therapeutic foods that treat malnutrition. Receiving proper nutrition is a key element for children to reach their fifth birthday.

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Monday UNICEF pic: Ethiopia

Alisa Aydin, UNICEF USA — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:46:31 +0000

On Friday, UNICEF released a Humanitarian Action Update for the Horn of Africa (Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Uganda), where some 500,000 children under the age of five are suffering from severe acute malnutrition due to ongoing drought, chronic food insecurity and conflict.

You can see the concern on this mother's face as she feeds her severely malnourished child therapeutic milk at a UNICEF-supported feeding unit in Ethiopia.

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Yemen: a rough place to be a child

Jen Banbury, UNICEF USA — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:27:22 +0000

Yemen is not an easy place to be a child. It is one of the poorest countries on earth, with more than half the population living below the poverty line. Now, heavy fighting in the north has forced approximately 150,000 people

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UNICEF’s comfort food

FieldNotes Administrator — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 14:15:41 +0000

I'm a firm believer in comfort food. It does wonders for the soul and imparts a sense of contentment. My favorite comfort foods are definitely milk and cookies. For many of us these are the quintessential pair of comfort foods, the items sure to cure whatever ails us. For others, these items are beyond comfort and convenience

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A child in Ethiopia, so close to starving

Jen Banbury, UNICEF USA — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 08:26:11 +0000

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Lucy Liu: Give nutritious “milk and cookies” this holiday

Lucy Liu, UNICEF Ambassador — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:36:53 +0000

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Marcus Samuelsson: Give the gift of nutrition

Marcus Samuelsson, UNICEF Ambassador — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 10:19:53 +0000

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, what kid doesn't love that! The savory taste of the peanut butter mixed with the sweetness of jelly makes for the perfect treat. Unfortunately many children in developing countries have never been given the chance to experience this childhood favorite.

Therapeutic Nut Spread is a high protein, peanut-based paste, very similar to peanut butter that can revive a child suffering from malnutrition. Malnutrition, caused by such things as poverty and crop failure can severely compromise a child's chances at survival.

Plumpy Nut has revolutionized the aid community's ability to address the issue of malnutrition by placing the care of children back into the hands of a child's mother or immediate family member. Once a child has been brought back from the brink of severe malnutrition, UNICEF doctors and nutrition specialists will give mothers a supply of Plumpy Nut to feed to her child

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Buy nutrition supplies for children in emergencies like DR Congo

FieldNotes Administrator — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 07:30:00 +0000


Therapeutic Milk
While UNICEF strongly supports and encourages breastfeeding, this therapeutic milk is used in emergency feeding centers, refugee camps and hospitals in regions where food security is affected by famine, drought and crop failure.


Therapeutic Nut Spread
Therapeutic nut spread is a high protein, peanut-based paste, supplied in a ready-to-use packet.


High Energy/Protein Biscuits
Your purchase will provide 2 cartons (40 packets, 400g each) of high energy/protein biscuits, especially developed for young children caught-up in emergency situations.

Starvation is an appalling and completely preventable threat facing millions of children in emergency situations around the world. From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, UNICEF is working to ensure children receive adequate nutrition as a foundation of its humanitarian relief and recovery efforts wherever children's lives are at risk.

Malnutrition is devastating. It plays a part in more than a third of all child deaths in developing countries. It blunts the intellect, saps the productivity of everyone it touches and perpetuates poverty.

Proper nutrition helps give every child the best start in life. UNICEF has worked from its founding on nutrition programming aimed at fulfilling every child's right to adequate nutrition.

Malnutrition increases dramatically, and kills most rapidly, in emergencies. Most children do not die due to conflicts or natural disasters themselves, but rather to resulting food shortages, lack of safe water, inadequate health care, and poor sanitation and hygiene. The vast majority of children succumb to measles, diarrhea, respiratory infections and severe malnutrition.

Today, there are 35 million refugees and displaced people in the world, 90 percent of whom are women and children.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), UNICEF and other UN agencies are working to stave off a desperate nutrition crisis among displaced persons. At one site where 50,000 people sought refuge from a recent rise in fighting, UNICEF and its partners were able to ship in water, a week's worth of medical supplies and about 15,000 biscuits for children. According to UNICEF Communications Specialist Jaya Murthy in Goma, the distribution of food among the displaced nearly caused a riot. Many hadn't eaten for days.

Simple, inexpensive fortified foods, such as therapeutic milk, nut spread and high-energy protein biscuits save lives and help improve nutrition levels in vulnerable children. Through UNICEF's Inspired Gifts program, you can purchase these supplies for children in emergencies like the DRC.

Your purchase will make a difference! Click here to learn more.

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