TODDLER FOOD PARTNERS

Helping malnourished children.

Our Work

TYPICAL PROJECT STEPS

 

To be successful, we must carefully plan our work.  For this we have established a detailed list of project steps.  All the partners must work together to have a significant impact in treating the children.  If any of the partners are not fully committed or if any of the steps are ignored, then the project will have a much lower probability of success.

 

Initiating a toddler food project usually requires the following steps:

 

1.      Identify, educate, and obtain commitment from a sponsoring organization.

2.      Recruit and train a technology volunteer to be familiar with the best toddler food practices.

3.      Verify that a health care facility and staff are committed.

4.      Verify that a suitable production team will be available.

5.      Establish a startup plan with specific tasks, schedule, and budget.

6.      Raise the money to initiate the project.

7.      Plan the logistics, cash flow, and other long-term “business” aspects of the project.

8.      Modify the medical and production procedures as needed for the specific community (translate, adjust recipe, etc.).

9.      Build or procure the equipment and training materials.

10.  Train the sponsoring organization’s leaders, usually in the Twin Cities.

11.  Ship the equipment and training materials to the target community.

12.  Set up the equipment and production facility.

13.  Train the health care staff.

14.  Train the production team.

15.  Conduct the operation for long enough to identify startup problems/improvements.

16.  Troubleshoot and retrain as necessary.

17.  Perform a follow-up safety and quality inspection about a month or two later.

18.  Measure progress at the health care facility and report regularly (e.g.quarterly) to all partners.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BENEFITS OF TODDLER FOOD PARTNERS’ WORK

 

Our projects are sustainable because we form partnerships with sponsors, work groups, and health care workers. We organize, train, and equip our partners to be responsible for logistics, production, and distribution. Each project has roughly the same activities. A good project should be able to bring a thousand children back to health per year. The number of projects we can establish will depend upon the amount of money we raise and the number of volunteers and partners we can recruit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have four specific tasks:

 

1.   Finding appropriate techniques and devices and adapt procedures and training to the local language, culture, available ingredients, and other conditions as necessary. We usually procure equipment, experiment with recipes, and modify existing training materials.  Equipment typically includes an efficient or solar roaster, a burr grinder, and various utensils.

 

2.   Training small local groups to safely produce the supplements. This includes selecting and training the supervisors and a production team to operate the food processing equipment and prepare the supplement in a safe and sanitary manner.  Training topics include procuring ingredients, measuring, roasting, mixing, grinding, packaging, sanitation, and personal hygiene.

 

3.   Establishing a working partnership among (a) the medical staff at a rural clinic or community center who dispense the food supplement, (b) the production team which procures ingredients and makes the food, (c) the sponsoring and managing group which ensures that day-to-day logistics, finances, and coordination are effectively handled, and (d) the TODDLER FOOD PARTNERS volunteers who train and equip the partners. We support the operation until it is well established.

 

4.   Monitoring research, field practices, and field outcomes to continually improve the process and ensure the continued safety and effectiveness of existing projects. Monitoring continues indefinitely but is emphasized at each project right after initial training.