STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Production resumed this week at a Georgia factory that makes a high-nutrition peanut paste for starving kids. Grant Blankenship of Georgia Public Broadcasting reports its future is tied to what happens at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
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GRANT BLANKENSHIP, BYLINE: A huge American flag hangs from the roof behind Jeremy Robinson's post on the factory floor at MANA Nutrition in Fitzgerald, Georgia. He makes sure MANA's packs of peanut paste don't leak before they ship, that they aren't wasted.
JEREMY ROBINSON: We save lives over here, sir. And that's a fact. We have the numbers (laughter). We have the numbers. I'm telling you, it's a fact.
BLANKENSHIP: Each box he touches is enough to feed a starving child three times a day for six weeks.
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BLANKENSHIP: HR manager Stephen Raney says these are kids so hungry, they can't sense hunger anymore.
STEPHEN RANEY: These babies, they don't even have the energy to cry at this point. So they're listless. They're just there.
BLANKENSHIP: MANA ships their lifesaving paste, made from peanuts grown right here in south Georgia, around the globe. The USAID logo and slogan, from the American people, printed on every box. But about a week ago...
MARK MOORE: We get an email from USAID.
BLANKENSHIP: That's MANA CEO Mark Moore.
MOORE: The headline was cancellation of contracts.
BLANKENSHIP: So he started lobbying.
MOORE: We started pushing, reaching out to our congressional members who are super helpful.
BLANKENSHIP: Austin Scott and Buddy Carter, both Republicans.
MOORE: Sending messages as best we could through to the administration asking, is this a mistake?
BLANKENSHIP: Because he'd heard the Trump administration say lifesaving programs would not be cut. Days passed, and then Sunday night, another email. The contracts were back with no real explanation why. The State Department did not respond to our request for clarification either. Moore is, of course, relieved. And he says being able to save kids from starving again, it's more than a moral victory.
MOORE: When you get to the last mile, to the end of the last road where people are the most desperate, you don't find a packet that says a gift of the Russian people or a gift of the Chinese people, but you do find packets of food that say a gift of the American people.
BLANKENSHIP: He calls it an America first message. With USAID staffing still in flux, Moore's greatest worry now is, who is left to carry this gift of the American people to starving kids?
For NPR News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Fitzgerald, Georgia. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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