Written by Kylie Akins
This fall, a 1971 Winnebago has a big mission: saving the lives of 10,000 children.The “Manabago,” a project of ready-to-use therapeutic food producer MANA Nutritive Aid, will go from campus to campus and state to state to educate people across the U.S. on the global effects of malnutrition.
With a goal of raising enough support to provide 10,000 children with RUTF treatments before Christmas, the Manabago will begin its tour in Searcy, Ark.
Manabago operators, Alex Cox and Harding alumnus Mark Slagle, will arrive at Harding University for the first stop on their semester-long tour and address the University’s chapel service Thursday, Sept. 8. The team will screen a documentary on global malnutrition and set up a therapeutic feeding center simulation on campus for those who would like to learn more about malnutrition and MANA’s work.
Mother Administered Nutritive Aid, started by Harding alumni CEO Mark Moore and Rwanda Director Bret Raymond, is based in Charlotte, N.C., and, with its southern Georgia factory, has responded to the six million hunger-related childhood deaths that occur each year by producing a peanut-based RUTF for malnourished children around the world. The nonprofit coordinates with several large aid organizations to deliver its RUTF to areas of high malnutrition, with recent distribution in East Africa and Guatemala. Since its inception in 2008, MANA has grown its capabilities to produce enough six-week treatments of RUTF for 10,000 children each month.
For more information, please visitwww.manabago.comandwww.mananutrition.org.
