USDA Includes High-Protein Soy Products
for Guatemala and Eritrea in McGovern-Dole
International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program
August 18, 2004…(State) soybean growers’ efforts through the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) Program have helped pave the way for two international organizations to gain approvals to receive high-protein soy products for their school feeding programs. On August 16, Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman announced that proposals from Food for the Poor and Mercy Corps were approved through the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program. As a result, Food for the Poor will receive 800 metric tons of textured soy protein to aid their efforts to feed 117,500 people in Guatemala while Mercy Corps will receive soy protein concentrate to help feed 20,000 people in Eritrea.
Both textured soy protein and soy protein concentrate were not available to international groups for their efforts until the WISHH Program provided the technical information on their nutritional value and more to gain USDA approval for inclusion of the products in programs like McGovern-Dole. With this important recognition, WISHH then provided international organizations with technical assistance and other information that aids them in using high-protein soy products to help meet the nutritional needs of the people they assist.
“We are pleased to see that more children around the world will benefit from better nutrition with high-protein soy products,” said (state soybean leader or WISHH Program Director Jim Hershey.) “These children have pressing needs for better nutrition today. They also represent tomorrow’s customers for U.S. soy. The fact that these products are being used in Eritrea and Guatemala is testimony to the versatility of soy to meet diverse tastes around the world.”
Florida-based Food for the Poor has already successfully used textured soy protein in its programs in Guyana to help feed children and adults. Through the new approval to assist their efforts in Guatemala, they will help a country that is working on economic recovery under new government leaders. Guatemala was once a strong commercial market for U.S. soy. According to WISHH Program Director Jim Hershey, 95 percent of Guatemala’s soy imports came from the United States in the late 1990s. Value-added soy purchases fell off when the economy faltered, but may be restored as WISHH helps the nation access U.S. food assistance funds.
Soybean growers saw Food for the Poor and other Guatemalan programs in April 2004 when they signed a letter of intent between WISHH, the American Soybean Association’s (ASA) Mexico City office, the Guatemalan Ministry of Agriculture, and Guatemalan commercial interests. North Dakota Soybean Council Chairman Matt Mechtel and Executive Director Deborah Johnson as well as Illinois Soybean Checkoff Board Chairman Stephen Scates and Nebraska Soybean Association Director Jim Stewart were part of the WISHH delegation to Guatemala.
Mercy Corps staff have received training on use of high-protein soy products during WISHH workshops for private voluntary organizations held at the National Soybean Research Laboratory in Illinois. They are working with a local company in Eritrea, East Africa that makes fortified biscuits for a school lunch program. U.S. soy protein concentrate will boost the nutrition of that company’s product and the available food both for the commercial and food aid markets.
ASA and a group of state soybean organizations launched the WISHH program in 2000, and today, numerous state soybean organizations support WISHH along with ASA and the United Soybean Board. Through WISHH, America’s soybean growers are building 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.
To learn more about WISHH contact:
WISHH Program Director Jim Hershey 1-800-688-7692
or WISHH consultant Karen Coble Edwards 703-281-7600
