Soy in Action in Central America

Our week in Central America sure went quickly. It is hard to belief it has come to an end. We completed our time with a visit to the Fabretto School and farm outside of Managua. It was a wonderful morning spent enjoying presentations from the students about their work on the Fabretto vegetable farm and watching the students perform local dances and songs.

We also were treated to a cooking demonstration by the mothers who volunteerto prepare the school lunches made from soy. It was a beautiful day and gave us a nice opportunity to meet some of the 70,000 students in Nicaragua that are receiving Textured Soy Protein (TSP) as part of the USDA Food for Education Grant that Fabretto, Food for the Poor, America Nicaragua Foundation, WISHH and NSRL are executing this year.

We then flew to Guatemala City and enjoyed a delicious dinner at a local restaurant that serves some of the best beans in town.

We had a meeting with Alimentos SA, a local company that produces Incaparina, a soy and corn mixture for Atol and also a flavored soy-corn beverage that is very popular in Guatemala and provides excellent nutrition. Alimentos is a great U.S. soy customer and it was a pleasure to see where some of our soy protein products go. We then traveled to Funda Ninas, a local home for girls that is sponsored and managed by Dona Isabel Bosch. Dona Isabel has created a beautiful and warm home for the girls in the middle of Guatemala City. The girls are a treasure and sang songs for us and showed us their home. Funda Ninas is also home to a soy cow sponsored by the World Soy Foundation and U.S. soybean farmers.

Our last day in Guatemala was a beautiful, cool and sunshiny day. We traveled to the local school in Zona 3 near the Cargill Perry Foods plant that is part of the Cargill-supported school under the Cargill grant to the World Soy Foundation. NSRL has been working with this school to provide nutrition education and assistance to incorporate textured soy protein into school meals.

Recently, NSRL developed a new concept to increase awareness of the goodness of soy and the importance of nutrition through a community Soy Nutrition Fair. The second such fair was held at the school where the 300 students were invited to attend with their parents and Cargill associates. It was such a fun day. The kids came and enjoyed carnival games, including an inflatable slide, face painting, balloons, soy milk and cookies, Perry hot dogs and other carnival snacks. Cargill volunteers took heights and weights of the children to monitor their growth progress. Nutrition presentations were made by NSRL, World Soy Foundation and our partners at CARE. Soy in cooking demonstrations were held for the parents, where they learned about the importance of soy and meat proteins and how to prepare local dishes.

Dan Farney visits with a child at a local school involved with soy nutrition programs.

It was a treat to see the children having a great day with their families and learning about how soy can play an important role in their diets. We ended the day with a visit to the city of Antigua where we were able to bring back some of the beautiful and colorful local handicrafts for our friends and families. It will be great fun to share these gifts and memories of our week in Central America.

Regards,

Bridget Owen, NSRL Associate Director

Helping Feed Children in Nicaragua

Another beautiful day in Nicaragua. Our group is looking forward to leaving the city and visiting a Cargill-sponsored school, as well as a Fabretto school. School visits always provide a great opportunity to learn about the work of WISHH/NSRL and the WSF, and they also are great fun. The children prepared for our visit at the Fabretto school and they greeted the group with smiles. They created beautiful and colorful posters about their school, their families, the importance of nutrition and hygiene.

Our group was split into two, with half of the group visiting the kitchens and the other half visiting the Fabretto farm. In the kitchen, we were able to see how school lunch is prepared for the children. It was exciting to see their menu posted on the kitchen wall and to learn that soy is utilized each day in the meals the children receive. We sampled the food and it was excellent. Recently the cooks at Fabretto had been trained by WISHH/NSRL. They are able to produce local dishes with soy and style!

The farm also provided an exciting visit. The farm serves as an extension of the classroom, and allows the students to learn good practices for farming and about the importance offarming to the nation’s future. We saw pineapples, vegetables and other crops.

We traveled from Fabretto to the airport, and boarded our flight to Guatemala via El Salvador. Tonight, we look forward to seeing a little of Guatemala City and tasting the local foods.

Regards,

Bridget Owen, NSRL Associate Director

Nutrition Collaboration in Central America

ISA farmer leaders Dan Farney and Doug Winter arrived in Nicaragua yesterday. Dan and Doug joined fellow leaders from Kentucky, North Carolina, South Dakota and Kansas, as well as representatives from WISHH, the World Soy Foundation (WSF) and NSRL. The partners work closely together to create nutrition solutions utilizing high-quality, nutritious soy protein. ISA has a long history of investment in the programs in Central America and around the world.

Doug Winter and Dan Farney at the CSR Conference in Nicaragua.

The program this week includes travels and events in Nicaragua and Guatemala. Both nations are located in Central America, and are current markets for our U.S. soy products. Nicaragua is currently the poorest country in Central America with significant health and nutrition challenges. The support from U.S. soybean farmers has initiated many impactful programs. There also is significant CSR activity. Bringing the two efforts together has allowed WSF and WISHH/NSRL to achieve even greater impact in Central America.

Today’s activities were focused on collaboration throughout Nicaragua through a CSR conference organized by WSF, WISHH/NSRL and WSF Corporate Partner, Cargill. Cargill has several business units located in Central America and is very devoted to CSR. WSF and WISHH/NSRL have been partnering with Cargill to develop CSR projects in Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua to utilize soy protein to improve nutrition of school lunches, early childhood nutrition, development of microenterprises, and educational and communication events highlighting the power of CSR in improving the region’s nutrition.

Today was just such an event! The conference was held in Managua, Nicaragua, and included local and international companies interested in learning more about addressing nutrition challenges through their CSR activities. Presentations included representatives from the U.S. Embassy and USDA, World Food Program, Cargill, WSF, University of Illinois, WISHH/NSRL, Care, Fabretto Children’s Foundation and many others.

A highlight of the conference was the presentation from Dan Farney. He shared more about the programs created by U.S. soybean farmers to connect the power of soy to nutritional needs in the developing world. Dan also commented to the participants that the U.S. and Central America are truly neighbors, and that neighbors work together to create benefits for the neighborhood. The conference was a good opportunity for all the people on this trip to meet key partners in Nicaragua and to learn more about the vibrant nutrition programs underway in the country.

The group tomorrow will see projects in action with visits to Cargill and Fabretto Schools, a local training farm and a soy cooking demonstration.

Regards,

Bridget Owen, NSRL Associate Director

Nutrition Solutions for Central America

Illinois soybean farmer leaders are in Nicaragua and Guatemala as part of the National Soybean Research Laboratory (NSRL) and World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) mission seeking nutrition solutions in Central America. The trip began February 13 and continues through February 19. The NSRL/WISHH team, with support from Cargill, the World Soy Foundation and Illinois soybean checkoff, is focusing on helping to incorporate soy into institutional feeding programs through education and training in both countries. Other efforts include organizing the third of a three-part series of corporate social responsibility (CSR) conferences, along with data collection to analyze the nutrition impact of FortiSoy in the diets of children and other activities targeted at child nutrition in Nicaragua and Guatemala.

Regards,

Bridget Owen, NSRL Associate Director

Singing the praises of soy in Somoto

Greetings from Somoto, Nicaragua!

This quaint mountain town is located in the hills of northern Nicaragua, just 14 miles from the border of Honduras in the center of the state of Madriz. Somoto means the Valley of Geese, but so far we haven't seen any geese!

We are facilitating a training at the Fabretto Center, a school for students in the community. Today, many of the mothers of the students have arrived to learn about food safety and hygiene, receive information on nutrition and have a chance to try their hand at cooking with soy.

Sra. Francesa, Head Cook at the Somoto school, Nayeli Villinova and myself head up teams of mothers who roll up their sleeves and jump right in by incorporating soy into rice dishes, quesadillas and meat patties.

The kitchen space was small by Western standards, but the enthusiasm was huge and in no time the burners on the two cook stoves were sizzling with frying pans full of all kinds of local vegetables including tomatoes, celery, onions and greens. Sra. Francesa's team browned the rice, added the vegetables and TSP and simmered until done.

Nayeli's team seasoned their ground pork and TSP with onions, bell peppers, salt and dry chicken bouillon, shaped it into patties and fried. Another recipe used similar ingredients with the addition of eggs and some corn flour. The end result was enjoyed by all and everyone exchanged recipes and took notes on techniques.

My team worked on quesadillas. We re-hydrated TSP for the filling. Potatoes are usually used, so this soy solution adds beneficial protein to the dish. The women chopped tomatoes, onions and greens and sauted those before adding in the TSP. The quesadilla rounds were made with corn flour. Achiote powder was used to get a nice brown color. About 3 TBS of filling went into each round. It was folded in half, sealed and fried crisp. Aaah. Delicious!

All the participants were anxious to go home and try their new recipes. They were surprised and happy to learn how easy it was to use soy and how much flavor it added to their favorite recipes.

We said our goodbyes and stopped in town to buy more groceries for our next training session. The drive to Cusmapa was very scenic as we traveled over winding roads with many twists, turns, ruts and ruggedness. As we made our way down the mountainside, the breeze picked up, the temperatures cooled down as the sun began to set. We turned in early as it had been a long day and Thursday was shaping up to be another exciting, but busy day as over 36 parents were expected to participate in soy cooking at the school in Cusmapa.

It has been quite an adventure. I do have to admit, I am looking forward to taking a HOT shower when I get home.

Relación sana,

Marilyn Nash