Final Wednesday, Mark Moore despatched an pressing message to the manufacturing unit that packages a life-saving peanut butter known as MANA: Cease placing USAID labels on the packages. We’ve misplaced our funding.
5 days later, he texted the manufacturing unit once more: Put the labels again on.
Mana Vitamin, a ministry supported by Church buildings of Christ and utilized in world aid efforts, is amongst a bunch of nonprofits worldwide that obtain grants from USAID, america Company for Worldwide Improvement.
An worker gathers containers that may maintain packets of MANA (A toddler in Uganda tries a packet of MANA (Mom-Administered Nutritive Help) at Mana Vitamin’s plant in Fitzgerald, Ga.
In late January, the Trump administration started chopping many of the company’s employees and canceling its contracts beneath the course of the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) led by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
That included USAID’s contract with Mana, which produces a high-calorie, vitamin-fortified peanut butter for kids affected by extreme malnutrition. Since 2010, Mana has supplied help to eight million kids in 45 nations, in response to the nonprofit’s web site.
A packet of MANA (seen right here in Uganda) bears the brand of USAID.
“It’s been a yo-yo week,” Moore, Mana’s chief government officer, stated throughout a Tuesday night time telephone name with The Christian Chronicle. He and his coworker, Jon McDowell, had been returning to their properties in Charlotte, N.C., from Fitzgerald, Ga., the place Mana Vitamin’s plant stands throughout the road from a peanut farm. The nonprofit buys 1.3 million kilos of peanuts per 30 days, McDowell stated, and USAID contracts characterize about 90 p.c of its enterprise.
Mana hasn’t obtained a fee from the company since December, Moore stated. When notified that their contract was terminated, the nonprofit had about 400,000 containers of MANA (Mom-Administered Nutritive Help) packets in its warehouse with labels that learn, “USAID. From the American folks.”
Though that contract is now restored, McDowell stated, “the product continues to be in our warehouse.”
A portray welcomes guests to downtown Fitzgerald, Ga., residence of Mana Vitamin.
‘Termination for Comfort’
DOGE’s mission aligns with an government order signed on Jan. 20, the primary day of Donald Trump’s second time period, titled “Reevaluating and Realigning United States International Help.”
“The US international help business and forms will not be aligned with American pursuits and in lots of instances antithetical to American values,” the order reads. “They serve to destabilize world peace by selling concepts in international nations which are straight inverse to harmonious and steady relations inside to and amongst nations.”
“The US international help business and forms will not be aligned with American pursuits and in lots of instances antithetical to American values” reads an government order signed Jan. 20, 2025.
Moore, a 1990 graduate of Harding College, spent 10 years on a mission workforce in Uganda. He’s a co-founder of Kibo Group Worldwide, a faith-based group that sponsors sustainable improvement tasks in Africa. He frolicked in Washington as a legislative fellow and Africa specialist earlier than co-founding Mana with David Todd Harmon, an Abilene Christian College alum, and fellow Harding alums Bret Raymond and Brett Biggs. The nonprofit shares its title with the life-sustaining bread, usually spelled “manna,” that God supplied to the Israelites in the course of the Exodus.
Mark Moore speaks with friends in Fitzgerald, Ga., throughout a 2024 go to from USAID administrator Samantha Energy, who was positioned on go away in early 2025.
The peanut butter is a Prepared-to-Use Therapeutic Meals, or RUTF, that doesn’t require refrigeration or hospitalization to deal with extreme malnourishment in kids. In 2010, one field of MANA packets price $57 to supply, Moore stated. Adjusted for inflation, that’s about $80. Via aggressive bidding, the nonprofit now spends about $40 per field.
McDowell, a 2013 Harding graduate, had simply begun working full time for Mana when the nonprofit obtained a Jan. 29 electronic mail from an deal with they didn’t acknowledge at USAID.
Cease manufacturing of MANA, the e-mail learn. They reached out to their USAID contacts, solely to be taught that the majority had been let go or placed on furlough.
A toddler in Nicaragua digs right into a packet of MANA.
In early February, as Mana’s employees contemplated what to do, Trump appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio as appearing director for USAID. Rubio stated that the company’s work with life-saving help applications would proceed. Mana quickly obtained a second electronic mail asking them to renew work.
Then got here the Feb. 26 discover of “Termination for Comfort of the Authorities” (so named to tell apart it from contract termination as a consequence of fraud or legal conduct). That’s when Moore instructed the manufacturing unit to cease putting USAID labels on MANA packets.
Within the media highlight
Mana’s plight rapidly went viral, prompting CNN, The New Republic and different media shops to provide the nonprofit “our quarter-hour of fame,” Moore stated.
The eye attracted supporters and naysayers alike.
“The outpouring of assist by my associates right here and elsewhere has been humbling and galvanizing,” Moore stated in a March 2 social media put up.
Others posted messages that learn, “Mana is getting wealthy off my tax {dollars}!” “Let different folks feed themselves!” and “Mark is a criminal!”
“As a religious Christian myself,” Moore wrote, “I need to reluctantly be aware that many and even most of those come from my fellow Jesus folks.”
Mana is owed almost $20 million in reimbursements from the federal authorities — a quantity that has fueled among the criticism, Moore acknowledged.
Mana Vitamin’s warehouse in Fitzgerald, Ga.
“I do know massive numbers like that sound spectacular,” he stated, “however there isn’t any revenue constructed into that. We take the cash after we’re paid and recycle it again into making extra RUTF for hungry youngsters.”
Of DOGE’s mission, Moore stated, “I feel we will all agree that reform and alter and frugality are wanted to get our spending so as. If the USA had been a family that made $50,000 per yr, we’re spending $70,000! That’s gotta change. …
“Any clever family would put each expense beneath scrutiny. However they’d additionally notice within the midst of their freak-out that the $100 they gave to the church meals pantry wasn’t the issue or the answer.”
“Any clever family would put each expense beneath scrutiny. However they’d additionally notice within the midst of their freak-out that the $100 they gave to the church meals pantry wasn’t the issue or the answer.”
Musk steps in
Mana’s story additionally drew consideration from Musk himself.
A podcaster named Jon Favreau (no relation to the actor/director) posted a screenshot from CNN’s protection of Mana to X, the social media platform owned by Musk. Favreau, a former speechwriter for Barack Obama, later posted a hyperlink to a narrative from Macon, Ga., TV station WMAZ.
Greenback Retailer Jon Favreau is an imbecilic propagandist who lies to attain low-cost political factors.
That stated, we are going to examine whether or not that is actual or not and repair it whether it is.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 2, 2025
In response, Musk posted, “Greenback Retailer Jon Favreau is an imbecilic propagandist who lies to attain low-cost political factors. That stated, we are going to examine whether or not that is actual or not and repair it whether it is.”
On March 3, Moore discovered that Mana’s USAID contracts had been reinstated.
In Uganda, well being employees weigh a baby throughout a go to by employees with Mana Vitamin.
The lengthy work days are removed from over, Moore stated. Though Mana produces the dietary packets, “we don’t captain the ships that ship it. We’re not within the villages handing it out.” By authorities guidelines, solely transportation corporations that even have USAID contracts can get the product to the individuals who want it. A number of worldwide shippers have instructed Mana, “We don’t but have an order to return and get it.”
In some ways, “it’s been a horrible week,” Moore stated, but in addition every week of “thorns and roses.”
Whereas he’s grateful that he and his coworkers can proceed producing life-saving peanut butter, “the drama continues to be unfolding.”
