Recent aid cuts mean there is a global shortage of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food, which is used to treat severe malnutrition
We all want a world where every child has enough to eat so they can do what children do best – learn, play, and dream. But as conflicts escalate, the climate crisis intensifies, and global inequality widens, record numbers of children face the threat of hunger. An average of 35 children were born into hunger every minute in 2024.
Hunger is not a lost cause. Malnutrition is treatable and preventable. We have been providing life-saving nutritional support to children for over 100 years. But right now, at a time when global hunger is skyrocketing and approximately 16 million children under five are facing severe, potentially fatal, malnutrition each year, the funding for this nutrition support — the funding that could save their lives — has been cut.
For just $67, you could supply a hungry child with a 6-week course of lifesaving peanut paste treatment.
What is severe acute malnutrition?
Without treatment, severe malnutrition kills. It is responsible for 1 in 5 deaths of children under the age of five, making it one of the top threats to child survival.
Severe acute malnutrition can cause muscle wasting, blurred vision and organ damage.
But for many, the treatment for severe acute malnutrition can be devastatingly simple: $67 will provide a complete 6-week treatment plan using ready-to-use therapeutic food.
Plumpy’Nut is the brand name for a type of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF).
Ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) has transformed the way we treat severe acute malnutrition. It’s a micronutrient enhanced paste used to treat children under age 5 and can improve a child’s health outcomes within days.
One RUTF sachet combines 500 calories and micronutrients that have:
• High nutritional value allowing malnourished children to gain weight quickly.
• Two-year shelf life, making it convenient to preposition in a warehouse.
• No need for preparation – children eat it directly from the packet.
An infant girl, who became malnourished due to the dire economic situation the family is facing in Syria, is fed therapeutic food.