What is Plumpy’nut?

• Plumpy'nut was invented by André Briendto, a French scientist, in 1999 to save millions of children’s lives a year.
• Plumpy’nut contains many vitamins and minerals and it is rich in calories. This means that children get lots of energy from small amounts of it. This is really important because their stomachs have shrunk.  
• Plumpy’nut also contains lots of zinc and protein, which is good for the immune system.
• Peanuts are a good source of Vitamin E. Vitamin E is important because it is an antioxidant, and peanuts are the main ingredient in Plumpy’nut.
• Foods that are high in protein are necessary for this mix because eating it for just two weeks could rehabilitate a child.
• Plumpy’nut also contains lots of calories, which is important for energy.
• Plumpy’nut contains peanut paste, vegetable oil, milk powder, powdered sugar and vitamins and minerals.
• A 2-4 week treatment of Plumpy’nut only costs $20.
• A 2-4 week treatment costing $20 can allow 90% of severely malnourished children to recover.
• The downside is that Plumpy’nut is only given to the 3% of children who are already in acute malnutrition because it costs more than the flours that the United States and other international donors are already sending to countries that are suffering from world hunger. 

We considered making a website such as www.freerice.com, only for Plumpy’nut, but then we realized that there was already a website like this http://playforplumpynut.com/default.aspx. This is a website that is a non-profit organization where kids can learn and play games and donate money to the Play for Plumpy’nut organization. Every time a child answers a question right one cent is donated to the organization.