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Straits Times
2 days ago
- Health
- Straits Times
USAID cuts threaten 'God's food,' made in Georgia for children in need
Dozens of boxes filled with life-saving peanut paste line the floor of MANA Nutrition's plant in Fitzgerald, Georgia, U.S. May 21, 2025. REUTERS/Jayla Whitfield-Anderson Mark Moore, co-founder of MANA Nutrition, stands inside his production plant in Fitzgerald, Georgia, U.S. May 21, 2025. REUTERS/Jayla Whitfield-Anderson Machines on the production line at MANA Nutrition fill and package peanut-based therapeutic food at their plant in Fitzgerald, Georgia, U.S. May 21, 2025. REUTERS/Jayla Whitfield-Anderson Dozens of giant white sacks filled with peanuts, the key ingredient in MANA Nutrition's therapeutic food, await processing at their plant in Fitzgerald, Georgia, U.S. May 21, 2025. REUTERS/Jayla Whitfield-Anderson A packaged box of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) bears the USAID logo, inside MANA Nutrition's plant in Fitzgerald, Georgia, U.S. May 21, 2025. REUTERS/Jayla Whitfield-Anderson FITZGERALD, Georgia - Reaching into one of the giant white sacks piled up in his Georgia food-processing plant, Mark Moore pulls out a fistful of shelled peanuts - what he calls "God's food" - and lets them roll through his fingers. A former evangelical missionary, Moore is co-founder of MANA Nutrition, a non-profit that says it has fed 10 million children across the globe since 2010 with packets of peanut butter paste made in the small farming community of Fitzgerald, about 180 miles south of Atlanta. "This saves children," said Moore, 58, clutching a bunch of the protein-rich legumes. "It's not an overstatement: We defeat death." But MANA is now in the midst of its own struggle for survival. Deep cuts in federal programs targeting international aid programs under President Donald Trump have threatened to choke off the financial lifeline that has allowed the non-profit to carry out its life-saving mission. Since January, the U.S. Agency for International Development - created during the height of the Cold War by then-President John F. Kennedy - has all been but dismantled by the Department of Government Efficiency, Trump's cost-cutting entity led until recently by billionaire Elon Musk. In announcing the termination of its contracts, which accounted for about 90 percent of MANA's $100 million annual budget, DOGE sent a letter to the non-profit saying its work was "not aligned with Agency priorities." Efforts to reach a spokesperson for the State Department, which oversees USAID, have been unsuccessful. In two terse letters sent to MANA and reviewed by Reuters, USAID offered no specific reasons for the terminations other than to say the work "was not in the national interest." MANA has just enough cash on hand to keep running through August at the most, Moore says, but he seems unshakable in his optimism about the future of its mission. He has vowed to keep his 80,000 square-foot factory going and his 130 workers employed, even as the Trump administration has slashed 90 percent of USAID contracts and $60 billion in U.S. assistance across the board. One possibility is finding another international aid organization to support the manufacture and distribution of MANA's peanut paste packets, each about the size of a cell phone. Most of the product - which also includes powdered milk, sugar and vitamins - goes to Africa, where Moore served as a missionary in Uganda for 10 years. "It saves children who are at the brink of no return," said Mark Manary, an expert in childhood nutrition at Washington University's Institute for Public Health who helped develop the paste's formula. "It's hard to wrap your mind around the need." Manary said the food created in Georgia and at a similar operation in Rhode Island, Edesia Nutrition, is an important link in the global effort to stave off starvation of children in countries where the No. 1 killer is malnutrition. Moore hopes lawmakers and the Trump administration will see the value in the work and put the money back into the new federal budget. "I believe that the U.S. government will remain involved in global food aid," he said, adding that he has spoken to both Republicans and Democrats who want the work to continue. Moore is also seeking contracts with other organizations that specialize in humanitarian aid for children in crisis, including Save the Children, International Rescue Committee and UNICEF. The organizations did not immediately respond to a request for comment. One bright spot in recent years was an infusion of cash from Chris Hohn, a hedge-fund billionaire based in London and a philanthropist with the Children's Investment Fund Foundation. Hohn's charity did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In recent years, Hohn has given more than $250 million to MANA Nutrition, according to Moore, much of it already spent on expanding the plant, more than doubling its space and adding new machinery. But MANA needs new contracts to go forward, or another donation from philanthropists. "We've been put on Earth for a purpose," he said. "Jesus told his disciples to go and feed the people. So, we've been hustling nonstop." REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Choppy Trump policies, stocks drop has some rethinking retirement plans
By Jayla Whitfield-Anderson (Reuters) -Victor Fettes, 54, is going ahead with his long-planned retirement next Friday. But the recent decline in the stock market and uncertainty over how U.S. President Donald Trump's policies will hit the economy have him rethinking how he'll spend it. 'I'll say I'm nervous,' says Fettes, a senior director of risk management and compliance at Verizon, who has been preparing to leave the workforce by 55 ever since he and his wife got married and bought their first house. He feels the Trump administration's rapid policy changes are causing problems in the government and the economy. He's concerned that Social Security and Medicare won't be there when he or his older relatives need them. And then there's the $70,000 that the stock-market drop erased from his and his wife's retirement savings since the start of the year. 'It's scary because as you see that start to dwindle... that's money you won't be able to count on later,' he says. He's postponing a trip to South Africa, and plans to meet with his financial advisor next week to decide whether to move into more conservative investments. 'My grandfather lived well into his 90s,' he says. 'So, you know, I'm like, okay, I've got to plan for the next 40 years. And do we have enough to make it for two of us through the next 40 years? That's concerning.' More than $4 trillion in stock market value has evaporated since Trump took office less than two months ago, reducing the value of retirement fund accounts that many people nearing the end of their working lives have spent decades building. Markets have been unnerved by Trump's leveling of steep tariffs on major trade partners China, Canada and Mexico and on key products like aluminum and steel. Those actions and threats of increased levies on other countries and products have ratcheted up expectations of a costly trade war that could fuel inflation and weigh on economic growth at the same time. Mass firings of federal workers and cuts to government spending also are causing uneasiness, and recent surveys show business activity is cooling while consumers are pulling back on discretionary spending and have become increasingly worried that tariffs will mean rising prices. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says Trump's policies on trade, taxes and deregulation will create a 'transition,' not a crisis, even as he said he could not rule out a recession. All that uncertainty has complicated the path for people trying to prepare for retirement. In late February, Emory University finance professor Tucker Balch changed up his retirement account, which had been 75% U.S. stocks. It's now 90% short-term bonds, with 5% in U.S. copper, steel and aluminum stocks he figures will benefit from Trump's tariffs, and 5% in Chinese stocks. "If (tariffs) really do continue to roll out, there's no way that cannot lead to inflation," the 62-year-old said. He believes the Federal Reserve will have to keep interest rates high instead of cutting them to support a weakening economy. "I'm just stepping off the escalator for a little while until we know for sure that we're back on an upward trend." Fed policymakers meeting this week are expected to leave short-term borrowing costs in the current 4.25%-4.50% range as they take more time to assess how Trump's actions are impacting the economy. Vicki Knight, a retired educator who teaches yoga part time to supplement her income from Social Security and her retirement fund, a mix of stocks, bonds and annuities, is worried. "I would have thought by now, at age 70, I could comfortably begin withdrawing from my retirement and do things that I really would like to do, like travel and not work as much," she said. "I feel like I might have to work more rather than less now, because the prices of things are going up so much, and it's just harder and harder just to make the money that I do make, including my Social Security income, stretch out to be enough to pay for my groceries, to pay for my mortgage, to pay for my electric and gas bill." Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Choppy Trump policies, stocks drop has some rethinking retirement plans
By Jayla Whitfield-Anderson (Reuters) -Victor Fettes, 54, is going ahead with his long-planned retirement next Friday. But the recent decline in the stock market and uncertainty over how U.S. President Donald Trump's policies will hit the economy have him rethinking how he'll spend it. 'I'll say I'm nervous,' says Fettes, a senior director of risk management and compliance at Verizon, who has been preparing to leave the workforce by 55 ever since he and his wife got married and bought their first house. He feels the Trump administration's rapid policy changes are causing problems in the government and the economy. He's concerned that Social Security and Medicare won't be there when he or his older relatives need them. And then there's the $70,000 that the stock-market drop erased from his and his wife's retirement savings since the start of the year. 'It's scary because as you see that start to dwindle... that's money you won't be able to count on later,' he says. He's postponing a trip to South Africa, and plans to meet with his financial advisor next week to decide whether to move into more conservative investments. 'My grandfather lived well into his 90s,' he says. 'So, you know, I'm like, okay, I've got to plan for the next 40 years. And do we have enough to make it for two of us through the next 40 years? That's concerning.' More than $4 trillion in stock market value has evaporated since Trump took office less than two months ago, reducing the value of retirement fund accounts that many people nearing the end of their working lives have spent decades building. Markets have been unnerved by Trump's leveling of steep tariffs on major trade partners China, Canada and Mexico and on key products like aluminum and steel. Those actions and threats of increased levies on other countries and products have ratcheted up expectations of a costly trade war that could fuel inflation and weigh on economic growth at the same time. Mass firings of federal workers and cuts to government spending also are causing uneasiness, and recent surveys show business activity is cooling while consumers are pulling back on discretionary spending and have become increasingly worried that tariffs will mean rising prices. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says Trump's policies on trade, taxes and deregulation will create a 'transition,' not a crisis, even as he said he could not rule out a recession. All that uncertainty has complicated the path for people trying to prepare for retirement. In late February, Emory University finance professor Tucker Balch changed up his retirement account, which had been 75% U.S. stocks. It's now 90% short-term bonds, with 5% in U.S. copper, steel and aluminum stocks he figures will benefit from Trump's tariffs, and 5% in Chinese stocks. "If (tariffs) really do continue to roll out, there's no way that cannot lead to inflation," the 62-year-old said. He believes the Federal Reserve will have to keep interest rates high instead of cutting them to support a weakening economy. "I'm just stepping off the escalator for a little while until we know for sure that we're back on an upward trend." Fed policymakers meeting this week are expected to leave short-term borrowing costs in the current 4.25%-4.50% range as they take more time to assess how Trump's actions are impacting the economy. Vicki Knight, a retired educator who teaches yoga part time to supplement her income from Social Security and her retirement fund, a mix of stocks, bonds and annuities, is worried. "I would have thought by now, at age 70, I could comfortably begin withdrawing from my retirement and do things that I really would like to do, like travel and not work as much," she said. "I feel like I might have to work more rather than less now, because the prices of things are going up so much, and it's just harder and harder just to make the money that I do make, including my Social Security income, stretch out to be enough to pay for my groceries, to pay for my mortgage, to pay for my electric and gas bill."
