Recent Activities

Clinical Trial in India

Executive Director, Larry Carpenter, and Director Dr. Shivram Murty traveled to Mumbai for 2+ weeks in November-December 2012. They had an intense trip packed with meetings and visits to various sites related to Sion Hospital and the clinical study of the effectiveness of Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) that is under way. Here are some of their accomplishments:

• They observed MNT production at Sion in the newly expanded facility using the new packaging equipment. They made constructive suggestions to streamline production and to increase capacity.
• With the pediatricians at Sion, the decision was made that Phase 1 of the clinical study will end when the original supply of micronutrients is finished. A time line for ending Phase 1 and publishing the results was established. Data will be collected and finalized by March with publication by June.
• It was decided to continue the clinical study into Phase 2 to increase the number of children treated and to be able to do follow up evaluations 6 months or more after initial treatment.
• It was determined that SNEHA will continue to do outreach into Dharavi to locate SAM children and bring them into day care centers for treatment with MNT. This outreach will be part of the on-going clinical study. Sion will increase production to provide adequate MNT to the day care centers.
• A local supplier for the micro-nutrients was located and the supplier offered to donate the micro-nutrients to the project. The locally obtained nutrients will be used after Phase 1 of the clinical study is complerte.
• They observed the results of experements with various emulsifiers and determined the most effective one. This emulsifier will be used in all product after Phase 1 is complete.
• They located a local manufacturer of equipment to make MNT on a commercial scale. This local supplier is also interested in setting up a commercial scale production facility as part of his manufacturing business.
• They met with a small NGO in Nagpur that packages nutritious multi-grain baking kits and makes nutritions cookies.
• They met with people at YMC - a larger NGO near Mumbai - and presented a proposal for them to make nutritious coolkies in their existing bakery for sale with their existing line of baked goods. They were encouraged to contact the Nagpur NGO for recipes and initially to use their baking mixes.
• They met with pediatricians at a hospital in Nagpur to discuss their future use and possible production of MNT within their hospital.
• It was decided that day to day production will be conducted by the Sion staff. Aparna will now be with CTARA and will be available as a resource.
• CTARA will continue to be a resource. They will research alternative formulations and will respond with technical help as needed.
• TFP will continue to provide limited funding for two more years.

Larry and Shiv returned to the Minneapolis area shortly before Christmas 2012 tired and jet-lagged but excited about the progress that is being made in combating Severe Acute Malnutrition at Sion Hospital. They express their thanks to the entire staff at Sion Hospital that is working hard to produce MNT and to treat SAM kids. And thanks to the people working with SNEHA for the work they are doing in Dharavi to seek out SAM kids and bring them into their day care centers for treatment.

New Factory in Haiti

Our partner, Meds & Food for Kids (MFK) completed construction and started produiction in their new factory.

Construction began in 2011 and continued through the summer of 2012. TFP Director Dave Harmann played a key role in the construction. Although there was a Haitian construction project manager, at least half of the work needed to be done in the US to coordinate US contractors and supplies that were to be shipped to Haiti.

In July 2012 equipment was moved from the rental house ourside of Cap Haitien and installed in the new 18,000 sq ft factory in Quartier Morin (also just outside Cap Haitien). Dave helped move and recommission the automated equipment. The equipment had to be loaded and unloaded using primitive equipment and transported on terrible roads. On August 3, MFK began the production of Medika Mamba in the new facility. Dave ensured that it was done correctly.

Dr. Pat Wolff, director of MFK, reports that Dave Harmann, a Toddler Food Partners (TFP) board member and volunteer, was the guiding force in retrofitting the old factory to be able to pass the international food safety audit which made UNICEF a customer of MFK. He was also the key person in coordinating the US side of the factory construction effort and the move to the new factory. Dr. Wolff states, "Dave and Toddler Food Partners were absolutely essential to the success of this $3.5 Million proiject. We did not realize it at the beginning, but there were many essential construction elements unavailable in Haiti, and Dave understood what was necessary, sought out solutions and implemenmted those solutions. Our factory would still be under construction without Dave's help. Our costs were kept down by TFP consultation, which allows us to save the lives of more children and to become sustainable into the future."

Most of the systems installed in the factory - electrical, plumbing, HVAC, etc. - were provided by contractors in the US. Dave stepped in and coordinated the specifications and installation of these systems both in the US and in Cap Haitien. This involved many extended staty in Haiti through much of the year in addition to hours on the telephone and Skype to track progress and schedules. Dave never imagined his "retirement' wlould be so much work.

MFK is now producing 10,000 kg of Medika Mamba or Mamba Djanm, a supplementary nutrition propduct, each week!

Dr. Wolff also reports, "If we add another shift, we can, of course, double that. All of this depends on customers and technical support from great organizations like Toddler Food Partners. All in all it has been a major accomplishment - one might say a minor miracle - with many, many volunteer inputs from Haiti, the US, Canada, France and Australia."

Dr. Wolff continues, "We are deeply grateful to the start that Don [Moran] gave us when he was with CTI and the continued support from George, Larry and Dave of Toddler Food Partners. It has taken more than one village to support this effort. Many Thanks"

There was a ribbon cutting ceremony in Cap Haitien on 26 October 2012. Click here for more information and pictures.

Toddler Food Partners Attends the Peace Initiative

Dialogue for Peace

November 2011

Four TFP Volunteers attended the 2011 "Dialogue for Peace: Empowering Women for hte Future: A Forum for Engagement and Mobilization" expo at the University of Minnespta McNamara Alumni Center. They set up a display to show our work and presented TFP to many people that stopped by to learn more.

The Expo was attended by over 25 local non-profit organizations. The TFP display included a bowl containing all the readily available ingredients used to make RUTF together with single serving foil sachets of Medika Mamba that were made by our partner in Haiti, Meds and Food for Kids (MFK). A video prepared by MFK was shown. Board member Vicki Staudte prepared brochures and a display board showing some of the equipment that TFP has installed over the years.

Village Scale Manufacturing in Mumbai

George Farrell and Larry Carpenter have joined a team at CTI to design a village scale manufacturing facility. Some of the equipment has been used to do test runs. We successfully made several batches of RUTF using both the traditional milk-based recipe as well as a batch using chick pea flour to replace the milk. A target of these experiements is ti identify off the shelf eqipment that can be used in small scale production. We used a small hand cranked ribbon blender which was purchased at Northern Tool. It is high quality, made of stainless steel and can be used to mix a 10 Kg batch of RUTF. We also experimented with a "filler" purchased from Cabela's. This is also made of high quality materials and has a hand cranked piston to force product out of a spout. A significant deficiency is that there is no way to open and close the spout so accurate dispensing is a problem.

Both of these devices were shipped, along with two additional grinders from CTI, to Sion Hospital in Mumbai. Manufacturing of Mecdical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) which is a version of ready to use therapeutic food is being made at the hospital and is used to treat children from a nearby slum area.

Executive Director, Larry Carpenter, traveled to Mumbai in spring 2011 to work with Sion hospital to get the manufacturing facility up and running.

Other equipment was obtained locally in Mumbai.