RUTF Nutrition project

We have a name! ..or at least one that is being used for the moment Since PlumpyNut is trademarked, I have been using RUTF in reference to our project recently. But now we have a swahili name - Mateka Kalanga. It means peanut butter. Pretty simple, but I like the sound of it. (pronounced just how it is spelled)

I felt a little stagnate with this project for a week or so a while back as I focused on the clinic and got involved with some of the other hospital programs. But the last week and a half have been quite productive. I finally found a hand powered peanut grinder and put it to the test successfully.... I'm not sure if I'll ever pay for peanut butter again now that I can make it myself....... Don't hold me to that.

I also had a productive meeting with the head nutritionist with UNICEF. Turns out that they are making a push to start using Nutriset's PlumpyNut extensively in the DR Congo pending a successful pilot project starting this month. I was given 5 criteria that we need to meet in order to have UNICEF consider purchasing our Mateka Kalanga instead of the PlumpyNut from France. We have a potential market outside of the malnourished children in HEAL Africa's programs, which is great. This was really a key to whether this project would be able to become self sustaining and thus worth pursuing. After an earlier meeting with WFP (World Food Program) I was a bit discouraged because the program director I meet with was less than enthusiastic about the idea of local production.

I also have had some exciting news come in the way of Russ McCahan, from Fort Collins, CO. Russ has felt a calling to feed the hungry in Africa and has been passionately and selflessly pursing this calling. Global Strategies(G.S.) and myself have benefited from his project and experience in Nigeria and now we are benefiting again as he has found 2 peanut grinders and 2 industrial 20qt mixers, as well as various other kitchen related goods difficult to find here in Goma, that he will be sending to G.S. shortly to then be sent here. So we may have equipment here and the illusive vitamin powder that is impossible to find here locally to actually start making real Mateka Kalanga before I head back to the US in July.

This has been another learning experience for me. How to start a food processing project in a country that does not have a food processing industry! Sure, there is honey, every kind of fruit you can think of, fish, and various kinds of meat available locally, but none of those things are processed. The only Congolese made processed food products that I'm aware of are cheese, and a couple different types of beer. Everything else is imported. The biggest challenge this presents is approvals. We need to meet a certain quality standard, but there is no standard in this country to meet. So, we will use international standards of quality assurance for now. I'm still working on getting a meeting lined up with government officials who may have the power to shut down such a program as ours in order to find out what hoops we may have to jump through before we start the production. Lot's of learning!

That's the latest in the land of Peanut Butter.... or Mateka Kalanga as we like to call it here... ;)