The Solae Company Applauds WISHH for Introducing
Company to Government Food Assistance Purchases
Food for the Poor to Feed 50,000 in Guatemala with Textured Soy Protein
March 30, 2004 -- The Solae Company has made its first sale of textured soy protein (TSP) to a U.S. government food assistance program. The Solae Company is a joint venture between DuPont and Bunge Limited. The Company is commending the (state name) -supported World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) for helping introduce the Company to the federal initiatives and groups that can use U.S. soy protein. The Company is optimistic that this is the first of many such sales of soy protein products it may participate in international food assistance efforts.
Solae is commending WISHH for helping introduce the Company to the federal initiatives and groups that can use U.S. soy protein. Florida-based Food for the Poor will use the TSP in their program to help feed 50,000 undernourished Guatemalan children and their mothers.
Florida-based Food for the Poor (FFP) has received 400 metric tons of The Solae Company's TSP from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program. The FFP Government Program Specialist Clifford Feldman says that soy proteins will be key in their mother-and-child health and education program that will increase protein in the diets of 50,000 mothers and children in seven regions of Guatemala that have been hardest hit by drought and unemployment. The FFP effort also includes a training program to teach beneficiaries how to use the commodities, especially the TSP.
"Soybean farmers applaud The Solae Company for working with WISHH and the government to offer value-added soy protein products," said WISHH Program Director Jim Hershey. "Such cooperation and initiative is key to expanding markets for U.S. soy protein."
The Solae Company consultant James Zenner has participated in meetings organized by WISHH to help bring hunger-fighting groups, like FFP, together with soybean processors. "WISHH was instrumental in introducing us to the people and the programs that can use our products," Zenner said. "The alliance between Bunge and DuPont allowed The Solae Company to jump on this opportunity to offer textured soy protein made from U.S. soybeans to this government program that will benefit many people."
USDA is purchasing a total of 800 metric tons of TSP for the FFP program in Guatemala. The Archer Daniels Midland Company is supplying 400 metric tons of its Textured Vegetable Protein™ as well as corn soy-blend and soybean oil for the project.
FFP is no stranger to TSP and other soy products. In 2002, it became the first U.S. Private Voluntary Organization (PVO) to request TSP from the U.S. government. WISHH provided USDA with the technical information to obtain approval for TSP and other soy protein products for use in food assistance programs administered by USDA and the U.S. Agency for International Development
Numerous state soybean organizations support WISHH along with the American Soybean Association and the United Soybean Board. Soybean growers launched the WISHH program in 2000 to help America's soybean growers build more bridges between America's bounty and sustainable nutrition programs in countries where rapidly growing populations of all income levels can benefit from soy in their diets. More information is available at www.wishh.org.
The Solae Company is a joint venture between E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company and Bunge Limited. The Solae Company's mission to provide better ingredients for better living. www.solae.com
Food For The Poor (FFP), the 4th largest international charity in the U.S., is a Christian relief and development organization that has developed a highly efficient strategy for aiding the destitute of the Caribbean and Latin America. In the last 20 years, with the partnership of our many donors, FFP has shipped over $1 billion in aid to the region ($273 million in 2001). FFP provides emergency relief assistance, education, housing, health care, sustainable development, and micro-enterprise development assistance to hundreds of thousands of the poorest of the poor in the region www.foodforthepoor.org.
