Vanderbilt malnutrition project opens mass-production facility in Guatemala
388 views · Published 5 October 2015 · 0:44 · Indexed 16 October 2026
Channel: Vanderbilt University · 2015 · Education
A malnutrition project founded by Ted Fischer, professor of anthropology and director of the Center for Latin American Studies, and developed with the help of more than a dozen of Vanderbilt students, entered a new phase in Guatemala City on Sept. 23 with the grand opening of a facility to mass-produce a new Ready-to-Use Supplementary Food, or RUSF, called Mani+. The event, which was held at the Instituto de Nutrición de Centro América y Panamá (INCAP), was attended by senior health officials from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, and the Dominican Republic, as well as prominent business and NGO leaders and representatives from the World Food Program. Liz Entman [2:53 PM]2:53 Mani+ is produced by NutriPlus, a social enterprise founded by Fischer and former Country Music Association CEO Steve Moore—founder of the Middle Tennessee-based Shalom Foundation, whose Guatemala City pediatric clinic has strong ties to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt and which houses the Vanderbilt Guatemala Research Station. In addition to producing nutritional supplements, NutriPlus’ mission is to promote economic opportunities for the local farmers who produce the ingredients and to develop culturally appropriate educational materials about malnutrition and RUSFs for mothers and children. Vanderbilt students from across the university have been instrumental in the development of Mani+ from the beginning—developing financial and quality control models, an aflotoxin eradication plan for partner peanut farmers, and educational materials and packaging, as well as conducting crucial field research on peanut cultivation and Mani+ usage in the home. The paste itself was developed in partnership with food scientists at INCAP, which also donated the Mani+ production facility. Follow Vanderbilt on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vanderbiltu, on Instagram: http://instagram.com/vanderbiltu and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vanderbilt. See all Vanderbilt social media at http://social.vanderbilt.edu.
