USDA helps fund fortified food aid

   The U.S. Department of Agriculture will invest more than $8.5 million to help six organizations develop improved food aid products under the Micronutrient-Fortified Food Aid Products Pilot Program.
   This program is funded by the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition (McGovern-Dole) Program, and recipients will focus their efforts over the next three years in Cambodia, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Mozambique and Tanzania.
   “Our efforts to support global food security are important to the many people around the world who do not have access to nutritious and safe food,” said U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, in a statement.
   Under the pilot program, participants develop and field test food aid products for children, women and infants. The products are nutritionally enhanced with vitamins or minerals to address the micronutrient deficiencies of a specific population or group. The products are developed in the United States using domestically grown commodities.
   The first program award was issued in August 2010 to the International Partnership for Human Development, Inc., which continues to test its ready-to-use, supplementary dairy paste in Guinea-Bissau.