Future Fortified Campaign to Improve Nutrition in Impoverished Children

My daughter was severely neglected by her biological family during her early years of life.  Drug and alcohol abuse played into it.  I believe generational poverty and lack of resources, including guidance and education, to be at the root of it.  She told me once that she remembers one of her siblings sneaking a cookie home from school.  There were six children. They split the cookie six ways for dinner.  It was the only food she had that day.

She entered foster care when she was four years old.  No one helped her work through the damage caused by the trauma of being hungry for years.  Instead, rules and restrictions were forced on food.  For example, in one foster home she wasn't allowed to have a beverage with breakfast if she had cereal because they counted the milk as her drink.  Food was guarded and foster parents kept watchful control of the portions each child was allotted.  She was constantly worried food would vanish from her life again and having to share it with the other foster children sent her into a panic.

So she started sneaking out of her room at night to steal food.  Sometimes she'd rally the other foster children and they'd get a system down - someone kept watch while another child grabbed the food and another located a good hiding spot for their stash.   She has told me that she loved it when they had bologna in the house.  Bologna slices are thin and slimy.  She stuck them right on her skin under her pajamas to smuggle them back to her room.

We adopted her when she was nine.  She's been with us for two years.  We have a very different policy when it comes to food.  I never tell her she can't eat.  I do sometimes tell her she can't eat the thing she's asking for, though.  "You can have a snack, but not ice cream right now.  You are welcome to a piece of fruit or yogurt."  My husband and I have worked hard to help her feel safe and to trust that we'll provide for her.   She's come a long ways.

She still struggles with her food issues, though, especially in times of stress.  It's one of the first clues that something is on her mind.  Her table manners go out the window.  She shovels food in with her hands at a rapid pace and eats until her stomach sticks way out.  She's taken money that wasn't hers to buy snacks at camp and hid empty food wrappers in between the couch cushions.  She suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and being hungry is a major trigger for her. 

She's shown me firsthand the damage lack of food causes.  It's not just something that is felt physically.  It is also mentally, emotionally and socially damaging.  It impacts her view of herself and relationship with others.  Food is constantly on her mind. 

So when I was asked to write about the Future Fortified campaign from the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), I was thrilled.  Their goal is to provide sustainable access to improved nutrition to women and children around the world. They will accomplish this by making home nutrition packets available to mothers.  The nutrition packets contain a mix of vitamins and minerals that the mother simply sprinkles on whatever food she has available, making the food more nutritious regardless of how little of it there is or how low the quality.

Did you know that over two billion people in our world don't get the nutrients they need for their bodies and brains to function properly?   I am certain that was true for my daughter. The reports in her foster care file from when she first entered the system had her diagnosed as mentally retarded, ADHD and having language and communication delays.   She's now an honor roll student, member of the safety patrol and receiving no special education services.  She was delayed because her little brain wasn't getting the fuel it needed.

Poor nutrition is the cause for over 35% of childhood deaths each year.  I feel so blessed that my little Princess made it through. 

The nutrition packets cost just pennies to make per day.  This leverages the fundraising dollar and makes getting them into the hands children and families much quicker and easier than programs that focus on providing food.  I see this program working really well with programs that provide food - adding the nutrition packets super charges the food. 

I think the nutrition packets would be very valuable right here in the United States.  We have neighborhoods all across the country where access to fresh, nutritious foods is severely limited.  Getting the home nutrition packets into the hands of parents, schools, grandparents and other caretakers will allow them to sprinkle it right on whatever foods they do have available, even if it's canned ham and ramen noodles.

Check out the work Fortified Future is doing at:

http://futurefortified.org/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FutureFortified

Twitter: https://twitter.com/futurefortified

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf Future Fortified. To thank me for my contribution, Mom Central donated $20 to the Future Fortified campaign.