We call ourselves the MANA village, a community that also happens to be a company. We are a group of social entrepreneurs located in Georgia and North Carolina and our day job is developing and providing solutions to address severe cases of malnutrition in children. At MANA we make a ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) made of a fortified peanut paste that has been carefully formulated to provide a child’s basic nutritional needs. Roughly three servings of MANA a day for six weeks can save the life of child suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM). We are organizationally structured as a non-profit, but we run our company according to the same tried and true best-practice business principles that are the hallmark of great companies around the globe. We not only make a special fortified peanut butter, we also seek to spread awareness of SAM and the 20 million children it affects every year. Today, MANA Nutrition can produce as much as 21,000 kg (46,000 lbs) of MANA per day — enough to feed 1500 children suffering from SAM — and our partners distribute it to places like Kenya, Sudan, Rwanda, Chad, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Burundi, North Korea and Guatemala. Much of our product ends up in a village setting, treating the world’s most fragile kids, most often by empowering their moms with simple healthy ready to eat food. From our village to theirs, we are proud partners with the brave and committed mothers of the world.
