Vandy’s Fortified Peanut Butter Attacks Childhood Hunger

Fatigue, dizziness, poor immune function, decaying teeth, and stunted growth. These are some of the symptoms of chronic hunger.

These symptoms, among a laundry list of others, are experienced daily by over 50% of Guatemala’s children as they go hungry. They’re caught in a vicious cycle. Poverty and inequality are causing malnutrition. Malnutrition is causing poverty and inequality. The children can’t break the cycle because they do poorly in school without proper nourishment, and studies show this is causing them to earn 40% less when they become adults and enter the workforce.

Enter Vanderbilt University. With help from nearly two dozen Vandy students and grad students, Mani+ was launched. Mani+ is a nutritionally fortified peanut butter made specifically to address the needs of Central American children. Each individually packaged serving delivers the calories, protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals necessary for brain development in Guatemala’s babies and toddlers. That means better overall health, which leads to better performance in school, which results in better earning power in adulthood.

Vandy’s not just fighting hunger with peanut butter, though. They’re also working to fight lack of economic opportunity. How? By opening a facility in 2015 for the mass production of Mani+ right there in Guatemala, creating jobs for Guatemalans and sourcing its ingredients from Guatemalan farmers. All of this came about after years of research and collaboration. Vanderbilt’s School of Medicine contributed to the food science, and the Graduate School of Management developed financial models and quality control measures. Vandy was also responsible for conducting field research on peanut cultivation, developing educational materials, and creating product packaging.

According to Vanderbilt, “field tests of 1,000 children show that Mani+ is universally adopted by families and measurably reduces key symptoms of malnutrition, like stunted growth and underweight. Treated children also had lower rates of anemia and diarrhea.” There’s no doubt Mani+ is helping solve a problem and break a cycle that otherwise would remain unbroken, and Vandy’s teams have been a driving force since day one.

In the SEC, It Just Means More.

To Vanderbilt, It Just Means More Hands on Deck in the Fight Against Malnutrition.