Burkino Faso
Cooks in Burkina Faso were ready to offer healthier foods with soy when America’s first shipment of U.S. defatted soy flour arrived in the West African country of Burkina Faso through the historic Food For Peace Program.
Before it arrived, WISHH played a key role in the United States to address government shipping requirements. In Africa, WISHH also provided important technical assistance to the Africare organization to ensure that local staff and organizations were trained on how to prepare the soy. Africare had requested defatted soy flour - 150 metric tons of product--enough to provide 5 million servings of protein - in its proposal to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Food for Peace Program. USAID approved the effort to boost the nutrition of severely malnourished mothers and children at a provincial hospital and a rural health clinic, as well to help people living with HIV/AIDS.
After USAID approved Africare’s proposal, a new U.S. government requirement for how products are bagged came into effect. Bags would have to be able to withstand wet weather for three to six months. They also had to be marked to promote the contents as a gift from the American people. Africare had a negative experience with changes in bag quality for other food products in the past. Those problems lasted for more than a year. WISHH quickly contacted industry representatives and had discussions with government employees about how the problem could be resolved. "Jim Hershey and WISHH used their knowledge of the government to help," says Cargill Texturizing Solutions Market Manager Gregg Nelson who is based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
