Catholic Relief Services partners FG on food supplement to tackle malnutrition

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has partnered the federal government to produce supplemtary food powder in a bid to tackle severe acute malnutrition.

The organisation handed over its manual that outlines the preparation and use of a nutritious supplementary food powder, known as Tom Brown, to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.

Tom Brown is rich in protein, made from locally available ingredients, and simple to prepare at home. It provides parents with an affordable and effective way to treat malnutrition in children under five. Regularly feeding children Tom Brown can also help prevent them from becoming severely malnourished again.

“Tom Brown is a home-grown solution that is welcomed and been adopted by communities, thanks to its low cost, dietary diversity, and positive reduction in malnutrition rates,” said CRS’ Head of Programs, Dane Fredenburg. “Children are in better health – not only surviving but thriving – thanks to Tom Brown.”

Nigeria suffers from the second-highest burden of malnourished children in the world, with a national prevalence rate of 40% (NDHS, 2024) among children under five. The government and partner organizations, such as CRS, remain committed to lowering this rate and are ready to scale up the Tom Brown approach.

CRS first started in northeastern Nigeria since 2016, giving mothers vouchers to acquire raw food materials, such as cereals, groundnuts, soybeans and cereals to produce Tom Brown powder within the community. Since 2023, among the 28,000 malnourished children under five who were fed Tom Brown in Borno State, 97% recovered their full health. Based on this success, CRS developed a Tom Brown implementation guide, which contains the step-by-step recipe for the preparation of Tom Brown and its use.

In a meeting to partner with the government of Nigeria CRS led by the Country Representative, Akim Kikonda, met with the Director and Head of the Nutrition Department of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Mrs. Ladidi K. Bako-Aiyegbusi mni to officially hand over the CRS Tom Brown Implementation Guide as a reference material for scaling up the Tom Brown approach in the country. This is a critical step towards decreasing the number of Nigerian children suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition.

Bako emphasised the importance of this collaboration, sharing insights from a recent stakeholders’ meeting. She noted that various State governments want to scale up the use of Tom Brown to address the rising number of malnutrition cases in states where Tom Brown is not commonly used.

“I appreciate the work CRS has done and their willingness to share the manuals with us,” Mrs. Bako said. “This meeting is very timely and will support our plans to achieve zero malnutrition cases in the long run.”

She also mentioned that the ministry is strategically positioned to coordinate and sustain the ongoing partners’ efforts in combating malnutrition.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with the Federal Ministry of Health to scale up the Tom Brown approach and are ready to support with trainers,” Mr Kikonda said. “This initiative is a testament to our shared commitment to improving nutrition and reducing malnutrition in Nigeria.”