![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/NMB5YBVPPZEHDAJDN66PDQ2N5A.jpeg\")
The offices of Edesia Nutrition in the Quonset Business Park in North Kingstown, R.I.Edward Fitzpatrick<\/p>\nAnd despite the supply chain disruptions caused by the slashing of the foreign aid program, Edesia has figured out ways to get its peanut-based products in Rhode Island to the places they\u2019re needed, in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhy did we build this factory?\u201d Edesia founder and CEO Navyn Salem asked during a ceremony Thursday. \u201cTo say that a child, no matter where they are born, must have access to food and nutrition to prove to the world that we can end a protracted problem. It is time to end malnutrition.\u201d<\/p>\n
The offices of Edesia Nutrition in the Quonset Business Park in North Kingstown, R.I.Edward Fitzpatrick<\/p>\n
Last year, hundreds of thousands of boxes of Edesia\u2019s life-saving peanut-based nutritional paste were sitting in warehouses as Elon Musk began dismantling USAID<\/a>, and Edesia was forced to lay off 16 employees.<\/p>\n But now Edesia, named for the Roman goddess of food, has expanded its North Kingstown factory from 85,000 square feet to 300,000 square feet, Salem said. That will allow the company to hire 50 new employees, bringing its workforce to 200. Since 2010, Edesia has reached 32 million children in more than 65 countries, and now it will be able to reach 10 million children each year, she said.<\/p>\n Salem said that when USAID was being dismantled, she called the Bezos family, asking what they wanted her to do with the funding they had announced back in 2023.<\/p>\n She said they would always tell her: \u201cJust keep building. We know there\u2019s children that are in need. If it changes the way that we deliver it or the way that we work, that\u2019s OK. But they\u2019re still there, and the need is still urgent. So keep building.\u201d<\/p>\n Amid last year\u2019s cuts and delays, Edesia found ways to not just produce the food, but get it to its destination, whether in Afghanistan or Sierra Leone, Salem said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are no longer a producer of life-saving foods and part of the puzzle,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are practically every piece of the puzzle now.\u201d That means building partnerships, raising money, and setting up warehouses in West Africa, East Africa, and the Middle East, she said. <\/p>\n \u201cIf a road is blocked, we have planes, we have ferries, we have everything you can think of to make sure that that food makes it to where it needs to go,\u201d Salem said. \u201cWe do last mile. We have to do it all. Why? Because children can\u2019t wait, and nobody else is going to show up to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Also, Edesia is shifting from treating malnutrition to preventing it from happening in the first place, Salem said. So it has invested in equipment to make a preventative product, called Nutributter<\/a>, in addition to the fortified peanut-based paste, Plumpy\u2019Nut<\/a>, that treats severe cases of malnutrition. <\/p>\n \u201cA severely malnourished child\u2019s arm is the size of a quarter,\u201d Salem said, holding up a quarter. If a child\u2019s arm is larger than that, they often get turned away under current protocols, she explained. <\/p>\n \u201cFrom now on, every child at the age of six months, a healthy baby will start to get this one per day for six months,\u201d she said, holding up a packet of Nutributter. \u201cIt costs 8 cents. Can you think of a better intervention? So this factory was built for prevention.\u201d<\/p>\n Salem said Edesia fought through a tough period because it believes that feeding children has long been a bipartisan issue. She added that Edesia has shown it \u201cknows how to do aid well,\u201d by bidding competitively, showing clear returns on investment, conducting research on what works, and buying raw materials in the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re American manufacturing at its best, and we get to find these little boxes that say \u201cFrom Rhode Island\u201d in the farthest corners of the earth,” she said.<\/p>\n Three members of Rhode Island\u2019s Democratic congressional delegation spoke \u2014 and took part in a dance celebration \u2014 at Thursday\u2019s ceremony.<\/p>\n US Senator Jack Reed said the measure of a society is not its economic progress or military power. The true measure, he said, \u201cis its contribution to the human spirit, its contribution to helping people across the globe. Edesia is committed to helping children survive, and it is a symbol of the best of America \u2014 the very best of America.\u201d<\/p>\n US Representative Seth Magaziner \u2014 who spoke on the House floor 42 times to demand restoration of federal funding for the nutritional paste made by Edesia \u2014 said, \u201cWe\u2019re not out of the woods yet. The administration is still not behaving the way that they should be. We as a country still don\u2019t have the right priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n While the federal budget for ready-to-use therapeutic food is about $300 million a year, the United States is spending $1 billion a day on the war in Iran, Magaziner said. \u201cImagine if we were investing that money in these kids, in these families \u2014 the number of lives that we could save,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n US Representative Gabe Amo, the son of West African immigrants<\/a> and Rhode Island\u2019s first Black congressman, said, \u201cI can\u2019t think of a better example of American leadership than what we\u2019re doing here today \u2014 of your work to ensure that children don\u2019t die of preventable deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n The United States has long filled the role of \u201cbeing that beacon of light\u201d in the world, but other considerations, such as war and partisanship, are getting in the way, he said.<\/p>\n Edesia\u2019s work is not just about compassion, Amo said. \u201cCompassion is there, but it strengthens partnerships, supports global health, and helps prevent instability before it spreads,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com<\/a>. Follow him @FitzProv<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Sugar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2VCEDV2SFNDJFHB4PQHGWO2WQI.jpeg\")
Sugar silos at the Edesia Nutrition factory in North Kingstown, R.I.Edward Fitzpatrick<\/p>\n![\"Navyn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/7XYSQMSGGVDSPH4FXWDGNJW374.jpeg\")
Navyn Salem, founder and CEO of Edesia Nutrition, leads a tour of the factory in North Kingstown, R.I., on Oct. 22, 2026.Edward Fitzpatrick<\/p>\n![\"US](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/FJRJAX2RFNGE5MUKV6EAEW3AGE.jpg\")
US Senator Jack Reed, center, takes part in a dance celebration during a ceremony marking the expansion of the Edesia Nutrition factory in North Kingstown, R.I.Mary Dowdle<\/p>\n