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Jun 13, 2013
Thanks to a significant grant to the World Soy Foundation (WSF) from DuPont Nutrition and Health, a team of agricultural development and school nutrition professionals traveled to Ghana to examine opportunities for school-age West African children to have better nutrition.
WSF and ASA’s World Initiative for Soy in Human Health program joined DuPont representatives Natasha Webster and Kent Holt as well as the Global Child Nutrition Foundation in discussions with more than 60 key stakeholders June 1-8. The Ghanaian Minister of Local Government, who oversees school feeding, and the Minister of Agriculture met with team members to discuss their government commitments to improved nutrition. They recognized the important role for soy to add much-needed protein to children’s diets.
Ghana’s school feeding program is currently providing one meal a day to 1.6 million children who are ages 5-11 years. By the end of the year, they project they will feed 2 million children, which is half of their total school enrollment for that age group.
Team members also met with food processors, John Deere representatives and other commercial businesses as well as research institutes, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the DuPont-supported Ghana 4-H. The findings of the trip are now being assessed for how they could complement DuPont’s Food Security Goals.
Ghana’s Minister of Local Government and his staff met with World Soy Foundation, WISHH, Global Child Nutrition Foundation and DuPont to discuss how to improve the diets of children in Ghana.
Children in Ghana commonly grow up eating diets that are heavy on starch but offer little protein. Soy protein could help children grow and learn.
