MOZAMBIQUE – MozNutri, a Mozambican social enterprise that provide affordable, nutritious, delicious food to Mozambican Children, has been awarded a grant of US$100,000 as a part of the 2022 Healthy Childhood Challenge, an initiative launched by Novo Nordisk in collaboration with UNICEF.

The Healthy Childhood Challenge was seeking the best ideas to improve children’s chances of being well-nourished, active and mentally well in the environments they live in.

As the latest addition under the umbrella of the NGO Mozambique School Lunch Initiative (MSLI), MozNutri is bringing to market nutritious locally produced food products at affordable prices, while reinvesting all profits into expanding school lunch programs.

Its first product launched is a low-cost peanut butter, high in protein alongside other nutrients.

About 80 percent of Mozambicans cannot afford a balanced diet and 43 percent of children are chronically malnourished.

Children are most affected by food insecurity and hunger, suffering immediate and long-term consequences of chronic malnutrition.

The systems approach used by MozNutri, addressing market access for local farmers, availability of affordable nutritious food options for parents, and the reinvestment of profits for non-profit programming, made the project stand out as a winner in the 2022 Healthy Childhood Challenge

Since the project’s inception, MozNutri has been supported by the Canadian social enterprise consultancy, Tailored Food, which provides small grants, product development guidance, and strategic support for scaling businesses that address malnutrition by bringing to market nutritious delicious low cost food for those living in poverty.

Tailored Food collaborates with grassroot social enterprises, along with partners like the UN World Food Programme, Save the Children, Unilever, and Impossible Foods.

In other related news, USAID has launched a US$75 million global project christened ‘USAID Advancing Food Fortification Opportunities to Reinforce Diets (USAID AFFORD) project’ to improve access to fortified foods.

The project, which is a component of the U.S. government’s Feed the Future effort, will promote widespread food fortification through a comprehensive strategy that places businesses at the center of the solution while strategically collaborating with the public, private, and civil society sectors.

The initiative’s partners include Nutrition International, the Food Fortification Initiative, and ISF Advisors in addition to TechnoServe, who will oversee the program implementation.

Diets lacking essential nutrients like vitamin A, iron, folic acid, zinc, and iodine present an important global health issue among the most economically and nutritionally vulnerable population groups, especially women and children.

In a study published by The Lancet Global Health, researchers estimated that 1.2 billion women of reproductive age globally have one or more micronutrient deficiencies, as do more than 372 million preschool-aged children.

This results in increased susceptibility to infections, birth defects, blindness, reduced growth, cognitive impairment, decreased school performance and work productivity, and even death.

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