SPOON

I am applying for The Elevate Prize because I envision a world where all children are valued and nourished. I co-founded SPOON in 2007 after adopting a child who was severely impacted by malnutrition. Today, SPOON is the only organization in the world dedicated to transforming nutrition and feeding for children living outside of family care and children with disabilities. By changing institutional practices, driving policy decisions, and pioneering effective interventions, SPOON ensures that all children have the chance they deserve to reach their full potential.

SPOON has had great success in eradicating malnutrition for children in our programs. However, there is a continued need to evolve and expand to reach significantly more of the 250 million children who would benefit from our specialized knowledge and unique interventions. Funding from The Elevate Prize would support the expansion of our data collection and advocacy work, increasing our ability to scale our impact and ensure that children who too often go unnoticed are included in global nutrition policies and interventions. Even further, winning the Prize would amplify our global voice as a small nonprofit and highlight the need for dedicated programs, funding, and resources for these children.

In 2005, while working as a speech-language pathologist, I learned of a four-year-old girl living overseas who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy. Her orphanage was worried that she could not walk and was becoming weak, so I reached out to help and eventually adopted her. Upon arriving in the U.S., Bakha was diagnosed “only” with malnutrition. With treatment, she made a remarkable recovery. Wanting to help other children like her, I met with another adoptive mother whose son was also malnourished, and we decided to volunteer for an organization addressing malnutrition for children outside of family care. Discovering that there were no such organizations, we founded SPOON.

Under my leadership, SPOON has transformed from a small organization working in one country into an innovative, impactful NGO with a global vision. Our long-term strategic goal is to achieve sustainable change in policy and practice through a combination of field implementation and global advocacy to reach the 250 million children living outside of family care and children with disabilities who are highly vulnerable to malnutrition. Ultimately, SPOON’s vision for the future is both simple and audacious: we aim to create a world where all children are nourished.

SPOON’s mission is to nourish children who are highly vulnerable to malnutrition by empowering their caregivers. With programs in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and the Caribbean, we are leading a global effort to transform nutrition and feeding for children who are often left behind: children living outside of family care and children with disabilities. Children with disabilities are three times more likely to be malnourished than their peers, and SPOON has found rates of malnutrition up to 93% for children in institutions worldwide. For these children, malnutrition is usually driven by a lack of accessible nutrition support and health services adapted to their unique needs. By providing training, tools, and resources to caregivers, we address both what and how children are fed so malnutrition rates decrease, feeding practices improve, and vulnerable children have the best chance possible to reach their full potential. Our tools include online distance learning courses and an innovative app, Count Me In, which supports caregivers to monitor children’s growth and recommends individualized interventions when problems are identified. Proper nutrition powers children to grow, develop, and thrive, and with 250 million children with disabilities and children living without family care globally, SPOON’s expertise is desperately needed.

SPOON’s approach is innovative because it successfully leverages our one-of-a-kind digital app, Count Me In, to both meet the immediate needs of children on the ground and advocate for a world where all children are nourished. 

We launched Count Me In in 2017 after identifying a demand for solutions that facilitate the delivery of individualized, adapted nutrition and feeding care for children living outside of family care and children with disabilities. By combining evidence-based care with digital technology in a scalable, easy-to-use format, Count Me In has proven incredibly effective at supporting caregivers to improve the health and wellbeing of children in our programs. As caregivers learn techniques through our trainings and utilize Count Me In to independently and sustainably integrate them into their routines, malnutrition rates decrease. 

By providing real-time data and reporting, Count Me In also offers indispensable insight into the needs of the children we serve and the solutions that work best to meet those needs. We use this data to advocate for inclusive policies, investments, and actions that improve nutrition and feeding for these children, ensuring that those who are too often rendered invisible are seen and counted in the global health sector.

SPOON’s five-year strategic goal is to lead sustainable change in policy and practice through field implementation and advocacy so children outside of families and those with disabilities receive optimal feeding and nutrition care. Our field implementation builds the capacity of caregivers to ensure they sustainably integrate our interventions into their systems of care. Data generated through Count Me In demonstrates need and solutions to policymakers, enabling advocacy for policies that improve nutrition and feeding. This approach allows us to meet immediate needs of children worldwide while also influencing country- and global-level policies that promote evidence-based nutrition and feeding interventions.

Data from Count Me In proves its effectiveness for children in our programs, with a 40% anemia reduction, 34% improvement in growth, and 82% improvement in feeding positioning. Our model has also led to policy change. Our work in Kazakhstan resulted in improved nutritional norms and practices throughout the country’s orphanages. In Zambia, we are sharing our data with governmental authorities to ensure our population is included in national nutrition norms. By continuing to scale our impact and leveraging our data to influence large-scale change, we can reach our audacious goal: impacting the 250 million children in need of our services.