Here’s a new term for ya: Ready to use Therapeutic Food (RUTF).
We recently reported the vital work being done by Mark Arnoldy, the 22-year-old founder of Nepal NUTrition an RUTF being developed to fight famine in Nepal. 

Here is another product that has shown great results in curbing famine in numerous countries in Africa and elsewhere: Plumpy’nut!
In 1999 André Briend formulated a peanut butter-like substance full of vitamins and minerals that serves as a food supplement. Plumpy’nut is used as a treatment in the most severe cases of malnutrition. It helps with rapid weight gain and is easy to eat; toddlers and young children can feed themselves the delicious soft paste.

The nutritional makeup of Plumpy’nut is complex to say the least, making it a genuine whole food.

It contains a balance of fats, carbs, and protein as well as tons of vitamins and minerals. Peanuts are also a good source of vitamin E, an antioxidant that helps to convert food into energy making them a great conductor for little bodies in need of something good.

Peanuts contain mono-unsaturated fats, which are easy to digest and are very high in calories, which means that a child will get a lot of energy from just small amounts, and important feature because their stomachs have significantly shrunk. (You can check out more specifics on this here.)

Previous to the development of Plumpy’nut the best we had to offer severely malnourished children were milk based formulas, which had very low recovery rates of 25% to 40% and were primarily administered through hospitalization. Since the immune systems of these kids were compromised by the malnutrition, they were extremely susceptible to infectious diseases, which flourish in hospital environments.

Plumpy’nut’s recovery rate on the other hand is a staggering 95% and can be administered at home. Yes, I said 95%.
Plumpy’nut was first used in the crisis in Darfur is western Sudan. There it was fed to 30,000 children and aid officials say it has helped cut malnutrition rates by 50%.

In 2005, the region in which Plumpy’nut was introduced had the highest rate of malnutrition in Niger; today that region now has the lowest malnutrition rate in the country. The success of Plumpy’nut is simply undeniable.

Dr Mark Manary, MD, a pediatrician at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri, has dedicated his life to reducing and eradicating famine “among the world’s most impoverished and malnourished children.” He has worked in Africa for over two decades and is recognized the world over as an authority on severe childhood malnutrition.

Dr. Manary established Project Peanut Butter in Malawi, in southern Africa. To reduce costs, they use local ingredients as well as a mix of vitamins and minerals supplied by a French company called Nutriset. Dr. Manary hopes to produce 150 metric tons a year to treat Malawi's estimated 15,000 severely malnourished children. The main costs are the employees, who are hired locally, and the ingredients. Regardless of cost, manufacturing locally provides much-needed employment.

In 2007, the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition, the World Health Organization and UNICEF issued a joint statement, establishing Dr. Manary’s community-based treatment protocols and formula as the most effective method by which to treat severely malnourished children the world over.
Plumpy’nut is used & supported by many organizations including: 

The World Health Organization
UNICEF
ECHO (European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Department)
Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without borders)
William Jefferson Clinton Foundation

“Project Peanut Butter is committed to the eradication of severe childhood malnutrition in the developing world, and welcomes the partnership and support of like-minded individuals and organizations in our endeavor to provide urgently needed, life-saving treatment to severely malnourished children in Africa.” So now you know; sometimes people go hungry but sometimes there is someone and something there to nourish them, which is good, really good. 

Hungry for more?
Africa's Miracle Food: Plumpy'Nut
Project Peanut Butter
To Donate: http://www.projectpeanutbutter.org/donate.htm