About This Field Partner
HISTORY
Project Peanut Butter (PPB) is an organization that produces and distributes Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) to treat severely malnourished children.
The history of PPB starts in 1985 when Dr. Mark Manary, the founder of PPB, and his wife Mardi first went to Africa.
Dr. Manary in Malawi
Dr. Manary worked in a rural hospital and he quickly realized the extent of the malnutrition problem. The standard of treatment at the time, known as F-100, was administered in a hospital and only yielded a 45% recovery rate at best. Dr. Manary decided to dedicate his work to finding a better treatment for these malnourished children and he recognized that a successful treatment program had to be home-based. In 1999, he spent ten weeks in a rural village in Malawi.
Rural Southern Malawi
He used this time to zero in on what a home-based therapy for malnutrition would require. The food had to be something that did not require water or cooking, would not spoil and was energy dense. Dr. Manary collaborated with a colleague in France, Dr. Andre Briend, and together they formulated RUTF - a blend of peanut paste, sugar, vegetable oil, milk powder and vitamins and minerals.
Dr. Manary and his team conducted the initial clinic trials with RUTF in Malawi and the results were striking; 95% of the children recovered! Many clinical trials have followed this initial trial, and all the results have been powerful. In 2007, UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the World Food Program made a joint statement endorsing RUTF as the standard of treatment for children suffering from severe acute malnutrition around the world.
After discovering that home-based therapy with RUTF was so successful, PPB focused on producing RUTF locally, using local ingredients and supporting the local economy.
TODAY
Today PPB has an internationally validated factories in Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Ghana. The factories are run by local staff.
PPB's Production Team, Sierra Leone
PPB's Factory Team, Malawi
As many ingredients as possible are bought in-country, including oil, sugar and peanuts. In Malawi, for example, over 300 smallholder peanut farmers are supported by PPB.
The RUTF produced in the PPB factories is distributed to malnourished children through PPB rural clinic sites and other NGO’s and government health care systems. This allows the locally produced RUTF to get it to the children that need it most. PPB continues to see over 90% recovery rates and remains dedicated to producing and distributing this life-saving treatment.
