Why global nutrition matters

As Congress starts back from summer recess, a little tale from the Korean War can inspire them to fight child malnutrition. It was 1951 and U.S. Army Major Charles Arnold arrived on a small island off the coast of South Korea. The island was the new home for 70,000 refugees from the brutal conflict between North Korea and South Korea, with U.S. troops helping the South.

The refugees were safe from the fighting. But they were not safe from hunger and malnutrition. You cannot flee hunger, the evil partner of war. Major Arnold, who was part of a U.N. civil assistance team, was tasked with saving the refugees from starvation.

Arnold had seen 28 years of Army service, witnessing lots of war victims in distress. But what he saw with hunger among Koreans was shocking. Children would come to the feeding stations rubbing their stomachs in pain from hunger.

Arnold and his team served hot milk and rice with emphasis on feeding children, nursing mothers and the aged. These were the most vulnerable of the population.

As reported in the Cincinnati Enquirer, Major Arnold described how “after only a few weeks of this milk-and-rice diet you could actually see the children’s cheeks fill out and a healthy sparkle come to their eyes.”

These children were saved from deadly malnutrition. Years of food assistance and agricultural support helped fight hunger and allow South Korea to rebuild.

School feeding, sponsored by the U.S. Food for Peace program, gave millions of South Korean children vital nutrition. South Korea became a strong nation and this was only possible because nutrition was the foundation. Today, South Korea is a donor of food aid, recently helping Afghanistan.

Nutrition matters, especially for children and mothers. It saves lives and rebuilds nations.

That’s why it’s so vital that Congress support nutrition programs around the world. They should do so immediately by passing the Global Nutrition Resolutions in the House and Senate (H.Res.189 and S.Res.260).

Rep. Jim McGovern (MA) says, “Over 151 million children in the world are undernourished. It is critical for the United States to sustain our engagement on child nutrition and build on our success. This is the best way for us to show the world what America stands for and use our influence to make a real difference in people’s lives.”

What do Afghanistan, Guatemala, Yemen, Syria, Haiti, the Sahel region of Africa, and South Sudan all have in common? High rates of malnutrition.

Rhode Island based Edesia has been producing life-saving Plumpy’nut and Plumpy’doz to send these countries. The peanut pastes are fed to starving children by the World Food Program, UNICEF, Save the Children and others.

It’s a race against time. As Bread for the World states, “Almost half of all child deaths worldwide are linked to malnutrition and 1 in 4 children worldwide are stunted.”

We can’t possibly expect nations to have stability and peace if children are starving.

Congress should pass the Global Nutrition Resolutions and increase funding for our hunger fighting programs. We should expand nutrition for small children, mothers and also school meals for older kids.

The costs of nutrition for children is far less than nuclear weapons or other wasteful programs. As the Resolution states “the potential benefit of good nutrition is life-long and influences a child’s entire future, with entire communities and nations ultimately prospering.”

Nutrition has the power to bring life, health and hope to children and nations around the world.