Latest news with #NavynSalem
Metro
17-05-2025
- Business
- Metro
Enough food to feed 3,500,000 people for a month left to rot due to Trump cuts
Food that could feed 3.5 million people for a month has reportedly been left to rot in warehouses across the world because of US aid cuts. Around 60,000 metric tons of supplies meant for hunger stricken regions such as Gaza and Sudan are stuck in warehouses in Houston, Djibouti, Durban and Dubai, according to aid agency sources. It comes after US president Donald Trump cut funding to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in January. Some stocks are due to expire as early as July and will likely to be destroyed or used as animal feed, the sources told Reuters. The warehouses are run by USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), while the food is sourced from US farmers and manufacturers they said. The supplies are worth more than $98 million, according to a document reviewed by Reuters, which was shared by an aid official and verified by a US government source as up to date. That food could sustain over a million people for three months or feed Gaza's entire population for six weeks, according to World Food Programme data Around 343 million people are facing acute levels of food insecurity around the globe, says the World Food Programme. Of those, 1.9 million people are experiencing catastrophic hunger. Most of them are in Gaza and Sudan, but areas of South Sudan, Haiti and Mali are also affected. The US government has issued waivers for some humanitarian programmes but the food is stuck at the warehouses due to the cancellation of contracts and freezing of funds needed to pay suppliers, shippers and contractors, according to the sources, which include former USAID employees. They said a proposal to hand the stocks to aid organisations able to distribute them is on hold and awaiting approval from the State Department's Office of Foreign Assistance. Almost all of USAID staff will lose their jobs in July and September, according to a notification submitted to Congress in March. The former USAID sources said many of the critical staff needed to manage the warehouses or move the supplies will leave in July. The United States is responsible for at least 38% of all aid contributions across the world, according to the United Nations and distributed$61 billion in foreign assistance last year. Just over half of this was through USAID. US food aid includes ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) such as high-energy biscuits and Plumpy'Nut, a peanut-based paste. Navyn Salem, the founder of Edesia, a US based manufacturer of the paste, said USAID's termination of transportation contracts had created a 5,000 tonne stockpile that could feed more than 484,000 children. She said she was hopeful, however, that the product could still be distributed to those who desperately needed it. More Trending Action Against Hunger, a charity that relied on the US for more than 30% of its global budget, said last month the cuts had already led to the deaths of at least six children at its programmes in the Congo, due to projects having to be suspended. Jeanette Bailey, director of nutrition at the International Rescue Committee, which receives much of its funding from the US, said it was scaling back its programmes following the cuts. She said the impact of Trump's cuts was difficult to measure, particularly in places where aid programmes no longer operate. 'What we do know, though, is that if a child's in an inpatient stabilization centre and they're no longer able to access treatment, more than 60% of those children are at risk of dying very quickly,' she added. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Map shows severe storms in US after 21 killed across three states MORE: 'Uber has innovated so hard… they invented a bus' MORE: 'Armed and dangerous' prisoners escape through hole behind toilet while guard was on break
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Food For Millions Rots in Storage After Trump's USAID Cuts
Roughly 60,000 metric tons of food—enough to feed 3.5 million people for a month—is sitting unused at the risk of going bad after the Trump administration slashed funding to USAID earlier this year. According to sources speaking to Reuters, the rations are spread across four warehouses in Houston, Djibouti, Durban, and Dubai and made up of cereals, pulses, and cooking oil. The food, valued at $98 million, was intended for emergency distribution in hunger-stricken regions including Gaza, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Most of it will now end up in incinerators or as animal feed. Nearly 500 tons of high-energy biscuits in Dubai are set to expire in July, one former USAID official told Reuters. They could have fed 27,000 acutely malnourished children for a month. The failure stems from USAID's rapid dismantling by the Trump administration and a pause on the contracts and funds needed to ship supplies to where they are needed. 'USAID is continuously consulting with partners on where to best distribute commodities at USAID prepositioning warehouses for use in emergency programs ahead of their expiration dates,' a State Department spokesperson said. Internal proposals to release the food remain on hold, awaiting sign-off from the Office of Foreign Assistance, now headed by 28-year-old Elon Musk appointee, Jeremy Lewin. Navyn Salem, founder of Edesia, a company manufacturing the energy paste Plumpy'Nut, said that her organization is now sitting on $13 million worth of food. She is 'hopeful' that a solution will be found soon to get her product to those who desperately need it. The U.S. is the world's largest aid donor, accounting for nearly 40 percent of United Nations contributions. Millions are reliant on the provisions it brings. The charity Action Against Hunger has reported that the cuts are already costing lives, with six children starving to death in the DRC alone after it was forced to suspend its operations. 'If a child's in an inpatient stabilization center and they're no longer able to access treatment,' said Jeanette Bailey from the International Rescue Committee, 'more than 60 percent of those children are at risk of dying very quickly.'
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Edesia Nutrition: 120K boxes of food at risk of expiring due to funding cuts
NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (WPRI) — More than 120,000 boxes of fortified peanut paste — which Edesia Nutrition ships globally to combat severe malnutrition — will soon expire due to a lack of government funding. Navyn Salem, founder and CEO of Edesia Nutrition, told 12 News the nonprofit relies heavily on its monthly payments from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). But the North Kingstown-based nonprofit has struggled in recent months to continue its life-saving mission because of the Department of Government Efficiency's efforts to dismantle USAID. 'The termination of USAID is putting the lives of hundreds of thousands of malnourished children at risk around the world,' Salem said. 'Children can't wait for the government or other international agencies to figure out a solution. We have to act now.' RELATED: Edesia Nutrition cuts 10% of workforce due to lack of USAID funding Salem said her nonprofit has been operating without 85% of its funding. The boxes of Plumpy'Nut sitting in Edesia Nutrition's warehouse were supposed to be shipped to Sudan, where Salem said the situation is dire. 'This is one of the most critical countries that need our support,' Salem said. Salem told 12 News she's waiting on a transportation contract from the federal government to send the boxes to Sudan. But if she doesn't get that approval within the next month, the United Nations won't allow her to ship it out. In an effort to try and ship the Plumpy'Nut without the transportation contract, Edesia Nutrition has launched a Mother's Day donation drive. 'Malnutrition and undernutrition are 100% preventable,' Salem said. 'As a mother myself, it's unconscionable that children are starving to death.' 'We have the solution; we just need the funding to get our life-saving Plumpy'Nut to them,' she continued. 'A $50 donation buys one box of Plumpy'Nut that will save one child's life. This will help us give mothers around the world what they want most — healthy children.' Salem is encouraging everyone who can to donate in honor of their mother. She said each gift will be matched up to $2.4 million. Anyone interested in donating to Edesia Nutrition can do so online. Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBS News
21-03-2025
- Business
- CBS News
American manufacturer of food for malnourished babies lays off staff amid USAID funding upheaval
Edesia Nutrition was among the fortunate few whose USAID agreement survived a whipsaw couple of months that saw the cancellation of more than 80% of the agency's foreign assistance contracts. Despite that, the Rhode Island manufacturer of a life-saving paste for severely malnourished babies last week had to lay off 10% of its workforce. Edesia's founder and CEO, Navyn Salem, said even though her contract is active, her company's invoices to USAID have been rejected twice this week. The delay in promised funds halted her production line, as well as payments to her largely American supply chain, including farmers who cultivate ingredients for the paste product's key ingredients. The layoffs were "the hardest thing I've ever had to do," Salem said. "The people here are like part of my family. I've been to their weddings. I've been to their family's funerals. I know their grandchildren. We're an interconnected family," Salem said. As Elon Musk , the richest person in the world and others who work for President Trump have targeted the State Department agency USAID , a variety of global health nonprofits have faltered amid dramatic supply chain disruptions. Musk himself weighed in on March 2, posting on his social media site that Edesia's contract would be spared. At the time, a vital USAID payment system had yet to be restored. Salem said it was restarted recently, but on Tuesday and Wednesday she heard from USAID that at least two of her invoices had been rejected. One was denied because her goods had not yet shipped, while the other was denied even though it was for a batch that had shipped. She said it's not clear why that one was rejected. In the meantime, bills are piling up. "There's still payroll and the lights to turn on and the peanut farmers to pay," Salem said. A spokesperson for the State Department replied to questions about the agency's payment systems. The agency did not immediately reply to questions about Edesia's invoices. The spokesperson said a review of the agency's grants and programs ordered by Secretary of State Marco Rubio "exposed serious flaws in the legacy systems used to approve and issue payments at USAID." "This has caused significant unforeseen delays and prompted the Administration to take unprecedented steps to implement more streamlined processes," the spokesperson said. "USAID has 27 payment and finance systems, all of which have been found to be inefficient, broken, and built to intentionally make communication with other systems in the federal government impossible." Those unforeseen delays have rippled out beyond Edesia, Salem said. "You have American farmers, American commodities brokers, American manufacturers, American shippers, and the NGOs, the American organizations…..if one of those goes down, the whole system stops," she said. Edesia's prescription food, called Plumpy'Nut, had been feeding children in Africa, including South Sudan—a country currently experiencing extreme famine—when the delivery was disrupted. Plumpy'Nut is a ready-to-use therapeutic food, prescribed for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition in children as young as six months old. Salem said her production line is capable of making food for 415 babies per hour, but her warehouse is filling up. In the meantime, as it responds to USAID's sudden upheaval, Edesia is itself working to be more efficient, Salem said. "We've just changed from a company that's been here for 16 years to being like a startup, to being more scrappy, we need to change the way we're doing everything," Salem said. "I am endlessly optimistic and hopeful. I believe in the mission we have. I believe that the majority of Americans believe in feeding children, everywhere." Dan Ruetenik contributed to this report.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Edesia Nutrition cuts 10% of workforce due to lack of USAID funding
NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (WPRI) — Edesia Nutrition, a North Kingstown-based nonprofit, has laid off 10% of its workforce due to a lack of government funding. Navyn Salem, founder and CEO of Edesia Nutrition, told 12 News her nonprofit heavily relies on monthly payments from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Edesia, which makes and globally distributes a fortified peanut paste designed to combat severe malnutrition, hasn't received federal funding since the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) first targeted USAID. 'We haven't been paid since last year for work that was contracted out,' Salem explained. 'Our [production] lines are very quiet right now. We've had to slow down in order to conserve cash while we wait.' Salem said this was the first staff reduction she's had to make in the history of her nonprofit. 'It was honestly the worst day of my life so far,' she said, adding that most of the employees she laid off had worked alongside her for more than 10 years. ' Edesia's North Kingstown warehouse typically ships out 10,000 boxes of the Plumpy'Nut peanut paste every single day, according to Salem. 'When I travel around the world and I see boxes of life-saving food from Rhode Island, I am extremely proud of that,' Salem said. But ever since the disruption in federal funding, she has been forced to slash Edesia's daily production of the life-saving product by more than half. 'Every hour that this line is not running, which none of our lines for USAID are running right now, is 415 lives per hour that we are not making product for,' Salem said. 'This is very important, the timeliness of it all.' 'We can't afford to lose those lives on our watch,' she continued. RELATED: Judge rules USAID dismantling violates Constitution Salem said one-third of Edesia's output goes directly toward USAID missions. That's why she said the lack of funding for her nonprofit, which has provided more than 25 million children with Plumpy'Nut since launching in 2010, is dire. 'We ship to 65 countries, and on every packet of Plumpy'Nut that we send, it says 'from the American people,'' Salem explained. 'Now, if you are a family who has a young child on the brink of death, and it was the American people that came forward and saved their life, do you think you would ever forget that?' Salem believes the federal government should take a closer look at the eight-week food treatment her nonprofit makes and consider it a worthwhile investment. Though Edesia relies on federal funding, it also benefits from generous donors. Anyone interested in donating to Edesia can do so online or by mail. Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
