Kudos to Plumpynut

Anyone who watches "60 Minutes" regularly has probably seen Anderson Cooper's report on the life saving miracle food called Plumpynut. I've just viewed the report for the second time and was touched once again with this simple answer to feeding the world's starving populations.

We sit here in our comfortable, air-conditioned homes, watching stories of the starving babies in Africa, on our HDTVs and wonder why. Why if we have the answers to world hunger, do the problems continue?

I remember watching similar stories when I was in high school and college. Children with pencil-thin limbs and bloated stomachs, their heads too large for their tiny bodies. It made me sad then and it still does. Here I've been living off the fat of this land, getting fatter each year. It's one of the life's paradoxes that just isn't fair. I have too much and millions have too little.

I used to make my kids an afterschool snack I called Nutty-Gooey. Mix one cup peanut butter with one cup powdered mik and one-half cup honey. Add more powdered milk if the mixture is too gooey. You can add raisins or nuts (if kids don't have allergies). Mold and roll into a two inch roll and wrap in wax paper. Store in the freezer. When the kids want a treat, cut off a chunk. They can eat it with their (clean) hands.

Who knew something so simple, something I fed to my kids, could save world hunger! The Plumpynut manufacturers add a vitamin and mineral supplement to the mixture. Malnourished children in parts of Africa are now thriving on our afterschool treat.

I'm thrilled that someone finally used the formula. Of course, making enough of the product and then getting it to the millions of children who need it, well, that's the problem. I wish I could be there in Africa passing out Plumpynut to the anxiously waiting mothers and their babies.

A huge hooray, kudos and thanks to the people who are on the front-line doing the work to solve world problems. You are my heroes.