Our Projects
The World Soy Foundation supports projects in the following areas:
Complementary Foods for Children 6-26 months
When breastfeeding is no longer enough for a child’s nutrition, many children are at risk for malnutrition and stunting. The World Soy Foundation focuses on helping this vulnerable group. Technical teams support frontline development organizations to teach mothers and other caretakers the importance of protein and how to incorporate soy into the foods they feed these children. These children need a great deal of protein to keep their young bodies and brains growing. Soy is a good resource for nutrition and health.
School Feeding Programs
The World Soy Foundation works closely with humanitarian organizations and government programs in developing countries around the world so children can receive a nutritious meal or snack each school day. A proper diet not only boosts the children’s health, studies have shown that it allows them to learn better in school. World Soy Foundation offers training and menu design to school cooks, administrators and community representatives in developing countries. The Foundation also works closely with humanitarian organizations and other partners to help ensure that nutrition programs are sustainable.
Soy Nutritional Services
Using soy, the World Soy Foundation works with other humanitarian and community groups as well as allied industry, educational institutions, Rotarians and more to ship food to developing nations as part of their feeding programs.
In addition to working in early childhood nutrition and school feeding, the Foundation can help provide resources to groups that make food available to people who are infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, including orphans. In some projects, the Foundation sends nutritionists to give nutrition and health guidance, and monitoring and evaluation tools for measuring how soy protein is helping people.
Helping People with Devastating Diseases
As the struggle against HIV/AIDS and other chronic diseases continue, the World Soy Foundation partners with local organizations and international groups to study the efficacy of protein supplementation for people living with these diseases around the world. HIV/AIDS-infected people may need 50-100 percent more protein than those who are uninfected. Widespread malnutrition adds to the problem, so we partner with PVO's and NGO's to develop programs to measure the impact of textured soy protein (TSP) in the diets of people living with HIV/AIDS. Baseline and follow-up measurements are indicating that TSP is well accepted by recipients, who perceived soy as a healthy food and felt better after including it in their diet.
Nourishing Orphaned Children
Due to the devastating effects of poverty, drought and disease, many children in developing countries are orphaned at an early age. With little or no food to sustain them, they lose more than their parents. They also lose weight, strength, immunity to disease... and hope.
Our programs distribute soy protein products and other resources to feed orphaned children in areas that face food shortages. This helps to alleviate their hunger, provide more balanced diets and reduce the effects of malnutrition.
Empower Women and Girls
Many women in developing countries face a serious protein deficiency. They lack adequate nutrition to sustain themselves and their families. And, they have no source of income to improve their situation. Furthermore, many of their daughters don’t attend school – which impedes their own ability to get educated, gain skills and prevail over poverty.
Our programs provide nutrition-enhancing soy protein products and teach ways to adapt these products in local meals. The programs also instruct women how to earn income through home-based micro-enterprise, and encourage girls to attend school to enhance their future.
Enable Rescue Efforts
In times of emergency, such as the earthquake and tsunami that left thousands hungry and displaced in Indonesia, humanitarian organizations often use U.S. soy protein products to immediately respond to the needs of victims. The World Soy Foundation supports these efforts with soy-protein-based products.
You Can Help Make These Projects Happen
