With USAID gone, R.I.'s Edesia Nutrition is shipping food for starving children with support from private donors
David Sarlitto, executive director of Ocean State Job Lot's Charitable Foundation, said Edesia's supplement is called a 'miracle food' by relief groups who said it can bring children on the brink of starvation back to nutritional normalcy.
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'One case of this product equates to a human life,' Sarlitto said. 'That's not over-dramatizing what's going on.'
On Tuesday, a convoy of Ocean State Job Lot trucks — escorted by the Rhode Island State Police — departed for New York with Edesia's fortified supplement Plumpy'Nut. The food aid will then be taken by an ocean freightliner to South Sudan.
Regan Communications Group
Tuesday's delivery was made without the help of the federal government, Salem said. There are
185,000 boxes of Edesia's lifesaving nutritional paste still waiting in a Rhode Island warehouse, she added, and the organization has not been told where the boxes will go.
'They are aging but not at risk of expiration,' she said. 'We need food to be traveling to children, not sitting in warehouses.'
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Edesia said it expects 1.6 million children in South Sudan to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2025, the group said in a press release.
Last year, 85 percent of Edesia's business was from
Related
:
Sarlitto said multiple agencies stepped up to ensure the delivery could quickly make its way down one of the nation's busiest traffic corridors, including Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee, Connecticut Governor Ned LaMont, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul who ordered state police to escort the convoy.
'Protecting global health and safety is everyone's responsibility,' Governor Dan McKee said in a statement to the Globe. 'Thank you to Ocean State Job Lot, Edesia and Provision Ministry for meeting the moment and delivering Plumpy'Nut nutrition to the starving families who need it desperately. RI State Police was proud to assist.'
Edesia Nutrition CEO Navyn Salem walks past shipping boxes piled high alongside raw materials for Plumpy'Nut, a nutritional lifesaving peanut paste sent to malnourished children worldwide, at the company's warehouse in March in North Kingstown, R.I.
David Goldman/Associated Press
Salem is planning to continue self-funded operations to aid children in need.
'This is what we do to be creative while we wait for the US government to reestablish processes and supply chains we used to depend on,' Salem said. 'The State department has been building teams over the last 30 days to put new systems in place with how Edesia will be able to continue our work. It's positive and promising but we need something to be created in the interim.'
US Representative Gabe Amo, who represents Rhode Island's First Congressional District, released a statement Tuesday thanking Edesia and OSJL for their food aid to South Sudan. Amo called on President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to support American farmers and aid producers by delivering Edesia's food aid to children and renewing contracts with Edesia so it can continue essential work.
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'Thanks to Ocean State Job Lot and Edesia Nutrition, working on coordination with the World Food Program, American can still answer the call when aid is needed,' Amo said in his statement. 'By partnering together, these organizations are filling the massive gap left by President Trump in delivering needed food assistance to children around the world.'
Amo said he has 'pressed' Secretary Rubio and the State Department to resurrect America's aid programs.
US Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, both Rhode Island Democrats, joined 40 US Senators in pushing for humanitarian aid in Gaza and resumption of diplomatic efforts for a ceasefire in the region.
'The acute humanitarian crisis in Gaza is also unsustainable and worsens by the day. Hunger and malnutrition are widespread, and, alarmingly, deaths due to starvation, especially among children, are increasing. The 'Gaza Humanitarian Foundation' has failed to address the deepening humanitarian crisis and contributed to an unacceptable and mounting civilian death toll around the organization's sites. To prevent the situation from getting even worse, we urge you to advocate for a large-scale expansion of humanitarian assistance,' the 40 US Senators
Carlos Muñoz can be reached at
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Hamilton Spectator
01-08-2025
- Hamilton Spectator
PHOTO ESSAY: Starvation attacks the bodies of these children in Gaza
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — In some tents and shelters in northern Gaza, emaciated children are held in their parents' arms. Their tiny arms and legs dangle limp. Their shoulder blades and ribs stick out from skeletal bodies slowly consuming themselves for lack of food. Starvation always stalks the most vulnerable first. Kids with preexisting conditions, like cerebral palsy, waste away quickly because the high-calorie foods they need have run out, along with nutritional supplements. But after months of Israeli blockade and turmoil in the distribution of supplies , children in Gaza with no previous conditions are also starting to die from malnutrition, aid workers and doctors say. Over the past month, 25 children have died of malnutrition-related causes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, though it's not known how many had other conditions. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, is staffed by medical professionals and its figures on war deaths are seen by the U.N. and other experts as the most reliable estimate of casualties. Salem Awad was born in January with no medical problems, the youngest of six children, his mother Hiyam Awad said. But she was too weak from lack of food to breastfeed him. For the first two months of Salem's life, there was a ceasefire in Gaza, and more aid entered, but even then it was hard to find milk for him, his mother said. In March, Israel cut off all food from entering the territory for more than 2 1/2 months. Since then, Salem has been wasting away. Now he weighs 4 kilograms (9 pounds), his mother said. 'He just keeps losing weight. At the hospital, they say if he doesn't get milk, he could die,' she said, speaking in the family's tent in Gaza City. Israel has been allowing a trickle of aid into Gaza since late May. After an international outcry over increasing starvation, it introduced new measures last weekend it says are intended to increase the amount of food getting to the population, including airdrops and pauses in military operations in some areas. But so far, they have not had a significant effect, aid groups say. Food experts warned this week the 'worst-case scenario of famine is playing out in Gaza.' The U.N. says the impact of hunger building for months is quickly worsening, especially in Gaza City and other parts of northern Gaza, where it estimates nearly one in five children is now acutely malnourished. Across Gaza, more than 5,000 children were diagnosed with malnutrition this month, though that is likely an undercount, the U.N. says. Malnutrition was virtually nonexistent before the war. Doctors struggle to treat the children because many supplies have run out, the U.N. says. Israel denies a famine is taking place or that children are starving . It says it has supplied enough food throughout the war and accuses Hamas of causing shortages by stealing aid and trying to control food distribution. Humanitarian groups deny that significant diversion of food takes place. Throughout nearly 22 months of war, the number of aid trucks has been far short of the roughly 500 a day the U.N. says is needed. The impact is seen most strongly in children with special needs — and those who have been grievously wounded in Israeli bombardment. Mosab al-Dibs, 14, suffered a heavy head wound on May 7 when an airstrike hit next to his family's tent. For about two months, he has been at Shifa Hospital, largely paralyzed, only partly conscious and severely malnourished because the facility no longer has the supplies to feed him, said Dr. Jamal Salha. Mosab's mother, Shahinaz al-Dibs, said the boy was healthy before the war, but that since he was wounded, his weight has fallen from 40 kilograms to less than 10 (88 to 22 pounds) At his bedside, she moves his spindly arms to exercise them. The networks of tiny blue veins are visible through the nearly transparent skin over his protruding ribs. The boy's eyes dart around, but he doesn't respond. His mother puts some bread soaked in water — the only food she can afford — into a large syringe and squirts it into his mouth in a vain attempt to feed him. Most of it dribbles out from his lips. What he needs is a nutrient formula suitable for tube feeding that the hospital doesn't have, Salha said. At a school-turned-shelter for displaced people in Gaza City, Samah Matar cradles her son Yousef as his little brother Amir lies on a cushion beside her — both of them emaciated. The two boys have cerebral palsy and also need a special diet. 'Before the war, their health situation was good,' said Matar. They could get the foods they needed, but now 'all those things have disappeared, and their health has declined continually.' Yousef, 6 years old, has dropped from 14 kilograms (30 pounds) before the war to 9 kilograms (19 pounds) now. His 4-year-old brother, Amir, has shrunk from 9 kilograms to under 6 (19 to 13 pounds), she said. ___ This is a documentary photo story curated by AP photo editors. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Boston Globe
29-07-2025
- Boston Globe
With USAID gone, R.I.'s Edesia Nutrition is shipping food for starving children with support from private donors
Advertisement David Sarlitto, executive director of Ocean State Job Lot's Charitable Foundation, said Edesia's supplement is called a 'miracle food' by relief groups who said it can bring children on the brink of starvation back to nutritional normalcy. Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up 'One case of this product equates to a human life,' Sarlitto said. 'That's not over-dramatizing what's going on.' On Tuesday, a convoy of Ocean State Job Lot trucks — escorted by the Rhode Island State Police — departed for New York with Edesia's fortified supplement Plumpy'Nut. The food aid will then be taken by an ocean freightliner to South Sudan. Regan Communications Group Tuesday's delivery was made without the help of the federal government, Salem said. There are 185,000 boxes of Edesia's lifesaving nutritional paste still waiting in a Rhode Island warehouse, she added, and the organization has not been told where the boxes will go. 'They are aging but not at risk of expiration,' she said. 'We need food to be traveling to children, not sitting in warehouses.' Advertisement Edesia said it expects 1.6 million children in South Sudan to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2025, the group said in a press release. Last year, 85 percent of Edesia's business was from Related : Sarlitto said multiple agencies stepped up to ensure the delivery could quickly make its way down one of the nation's busiest traffic corridors, including Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee, Connecticut Governor Ned LaMont, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul who ordered state police to escort the convoy. 'Protecting global health and safety is everyone's responsibility,' Governor Dan McKee said in a statement to the Globe. 'Thank you to Ocean State Job Lot, Edesia and Provision Ministry for meeting the moment and delivering Plumpy'Nut nutrition to the starving families who need it desperately. RI State Police was proud to assist.' Edesia Nutrition CEO Navyn Salem walks past shipping boxes piled high alongside raw materials for Plumpy'Nut, a nutritional lifesaving peanut paste sent to malnourished children worldwide, at the company's warehouse in March in North Kingstown, R.I. David Goldman/Associated Press Salem is planning to continue self-funded operations to aid children in need. 'This is what we do to be creative while we wait for the US government to reestablish processes and supply chains we used to depend on,' Salem said. 'The State department has been building teams over the last 30 days to put new systems in place with how Edesia will be able to continue our work. It's positive and promising but we need something to be created in the interim.' US Representative Gabe Amo, who represents Rhode Island's First Congressional District, released a statement Tuesday thanking Edesia and OSJL for their food aid to South Sudan. Amo called on President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to support American farmers and aid producers by delivering Edesia's food aid to children and renewing contracts with Edesia so it can continue essential work. Advertisement 'Thanks to Ocean State Job Lot and Edesia Nutrition, working on coordination with the World Food Program, American can still answer the call when aid is needed,' Amo said in his statement. 'By partnering together, these organizations are filling the massive gap left by President Trump in delivering needed food assistance to children around the world.' Amo said he has 'pressed' Secretary Rubio and the State Department to resurrect America's aid programs. US Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, both Rhode Island Democrats, joined 40 US Senators in pushing for humanitarian aid in Gaza and resumption of diplomatic efforts for a ceasefire in the region. 'The acute humanitarian crisis in Gaza is also unsustainable and worsens by the day. Hunger and malnutrition are widespread, and, alarmingly, deaths due to starvation, especially among children, are increasing. The 'Gaza Humanitarian Foundation' has failed to address the deepening humanitarian crisis and contributed to an unacceptable and mounting civilian death toll around the organization's sites. To prevent the situation from getting even worse, we urge you to advocate for a large-scale expansion of humanitarian assistance,' the 40 US Senators Carlos Muñoz can be reached at
Business Journals
01-07-2025
- Business Journals
Wake Forest's Charlotte campus redefines medical education with inaugural class
When Wake Forest University School of Medicine Charlotte opens this July, Charlotte will welcome its first class of 49 medical students to the new campus in The Pearl innovation district. The program will debut a pioneering, case-driven curriculum that immerses students in real-world patient scenarios from day one—reshaping how future physicians are trained. This campus builds on the Winston-Salem-based program and makes problem-based learning the cornerstone of its educational approach. Students and faculty at both campuses share resources, research opportunities and rotations. The connection allows students and faculty to tap into the full resources of the school across both locations, says Roy E. Strowd, M.D., vice dean for undergraduate medical education at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, who travels weekly between both sites. 'There's not that traditional lecture piece that many would be familiar with from their training,' Strowd said. 'The week starts with a case, and that becomes the springboard for self-guided instruction with faculty oversight.' The medical community's response has been unprecedented. When Strowd started recruiting for the first 30 teaching positions, he received nearly 170 applications. With enrollment expected to reach approximately 100 students per class over the next five years, the first Charlotte students will work with as many as 1,000 area physicians during their final two years of clinical rotations. expand Anatomy instruction relies on advanced tools rather than traditional cadaver labs, which allows students to learn anatomy longitudinally throughout their training rather than in isolated blocks. Students use virtual reality systems and plastinated specimens. (Plastination refers to the process of replacing water and fat in biological tissue with durable plastics.) The students also begin ultrasound instruction from day one. 'Wake Forest University School of Medicine is going to have the ability to really change the landscape of what we know about medical education,' Strowd said. The Charlotte campus' home at The Pearl sits just steps from Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center, a Level I trauma and academic hospital. That proximity supports early clinical exposure through advanced technology and specialized services. The Pearl also hosts IRCAD North America, a world-renowned surgical training center providing expertise in robotics and minimally invasive surgery. Ensuring educational excellence across both locations remains a priority. The School of Medicine maintains consistent academic standards across both campuses. Graduates from Charlotte and Winston-Salem complete the same exams, residency match benchmarks and graduation requirements. Student performance in courses and phases is closely monitored and used to refine instruction. expand This expansion responds to a clear regional need. Charlotte was the nation's largest city without a four-year medical school. North Carolina also has one of the biggest rural populations in the country. The School of Medicine graduates enter primary care at high rates, and many stay in state for residencies. Once both campuses reach full enrollment, the Wake Forest University School of Medicine expects to graduate about 245 doctors per year, making it the largest medical school in the state by enrollment. The model also expands research opportunities for medical students in both cities, with students and faculty engaging in basic science work primarily in Winston-Salem and implementation-based projects in Charlotte. Character development remains central to the School's mission. Like the Winston-Salem campus, the Charlotte campus will focus on developing physicians who demonstrate intellectual humility, curiosity, compassion and courage through community integration and strategic partnerships. 'We're not reinventing what's happening in Charlotte's medical community, we're becoming integrated into what's already there and helping it grow,' Strowd said.
