Latest news with #Sarlitto

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