A journal article from SPOON and our partners provides new insights on rates of malnutrition among children in residential care institutions in Zambia. Global research shows that for children, living in a residential care institution rather than a family is associated with poor growth and development. In other words, children need the individualized, responsive care [...]

Ending inequalities in nutrition will require transforming systems so that every child has the support they need to grow and thrive. SPOON’s work combining training, Count Me In, and advocacy in a system-wide approach to fight malnutrition for children with disabilities was recognized as a recipient of this year’s Zero Project Award. Zero Project is [...]

SPOON is thrilled to announce that we are a recipient of the 2024 Zero Project Award. The Zero Project is an initiative that finds and shares solutions that fulfill the rights of persons with disabilities. This year’s awards focused on organizations working in Inclusive Education and Information and Communication Technologies. Awardees were selected by a [...]

SPOON is redesigning our digital health app, Count Me In. This new version, called Count Me In+, will allow SPOON to improve our support for children with disabilities and significantly increase the reach and impact of our programs.   An Essential Tool Count Me In is SPOON’s digital health app. It supports users trained on [...]

At the 2023 Child Health Task Force conference, Accelerating progress towards the 2030 SDGs: reducing inequities in child health, program practitioners, policy makers, and advocates from around the world came together to discuss how to tackle inequities in child health and survival. SPOON convened a session focused on inequities in nutrition and feeding for children [...]

Through a grant from AVPN, SPOON launched a new project in partnership with OneSky focused on providing holistic and inclusive care for children in home-based childcare centers in Vietnam.   A Strong Partnership SPOON is thrilled to partner with OneSky, a global non-profit that trains caregivers to provide nurturing responsive care and early education for [...]

SPOON has been working in Uganda since 2016 in partnership with the Association of Religious through their Catholic Care for Children Uganda (ARU-CCCU) and a team of Master Trainers. We are working with 13 sites in the ARU-CCCU network, including childcare institutions, community centers, and schools. In February 2023, SPOON staff, the ARU-CCCU team, and [...]

SPOON focuses on meeting the nutrition and feeding needs of children with disabilities and children without family care, but we know that nutrition and feeding are not the only things children need. To grow and thrive, children also need the love, consistency, and responsive care of a family. Our programs work in the context of [...]

Meet Nikolina Juric, Program Manager for Europe and Eurasia at Perkins International and SPOON Peer Trainer in Croatia. Beginning in 2022, SPOON partnered with Perkins to launch our first-ever project in Croatia, where we trained 114 participants on nutrition and feeding for children with disabilities. As a Peer Trainer, Nikolina led and mentored a cohort [...]

Recently, SPOON had a chance to collaborate with USAID Advancing Nutrition in an effort to improve nutritional care for children with feeding difficulties and disabilities. This work resulted in the creation and launch of a Feeding and Disability Resource Bank, an online repository of resources that support those designing and implementing nutrition programs and policies [...]

In July, a cohort made up of 42 professionals was the first to complete our new Disability-Inclusive Child Development Course. This course was developed to help professionals working with children and families to learn essential skills in disability and early child development and to improve services and support for family care for children with disabilities.   [...]

SPOON and Oregon State University (OSU) Extension Service in Columbia County have collaborated to create the “Nourished and Thriving Children Course,” a free online training that provides guidance on addressing nutrition and feeding challenges specific to children who have experienced trauma. While originally designed for foster families, this interactive, self-paced course is useful for anyone [...]

With funding from the Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation, SPOON is excited to partner with Perkins International on our first-ever program in Croatia. Perkins has extensive expertise working in the country, where they strengthen capacity within local programs that serve children with visual impairments and multiple disabilities. Through this program, we are training 114 participants across [...]

SPOON serves two groups of children who face some of the highest rates of malnutrition: children with disabilities and children without family care (including children at risk of family separation, children living in alternative care, and children returning to family care).   Why does SPOON focus on these two groups? Disability and family separation both put [...]

SPOON's Nutrition Scientist, Zeina Makhoul, just returned from her first trip to mountainous Lesotho–the world’s largest enclave country–where we are embarking on a national-scale project to link nutrition screening and the early identification of disabilities of children. Sponsored by UNICEF-Lesotho, SPOON is partnering with the Lesotho National Federation of Organisations of the Disabled (LNFOD) and [...]

Since 2019, SPOON has partnered with Utensile, an Oregon-based product development company, to create a safe and affordable seating solution for children with feeding difficulties. Dr. Paula Rabaey, Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy at St. Catherine University and member of SPOON’s Medical Advisory Board, is currently working with SPOON’s partner in Uganda, CoRSU Rehabilitation Hospital, [...]

In 2021, SPOON mentored Kate Fairchild as she completed a capstone project for her Doctorate in Occupational Therapy from Saint Catherine University. Through this project, she developed FEED Safe, a flipbook and accompanying training program designed to walk caregivers through safe and effective practices for feeding children with disabilities. The FEED Safe pilot complements SPOON’s [...]

More than 250 million children worldwide have disabilities or are living without family care. These groups of children are at very high risk of malnutrition and its life-long consequences. These children’s needs must be prioritized in policies, programs, and investments. SPOON works with local partners to gather and share data on the nutrition status of [...]

This September, SPOON wrapped up our remote training on feeding and nutrition for children in Belarus. Training Reach A total of 96 participated in the training, representing staff from the country’s 40 early intervention centers, which provide services to children under three years of age who have developmental delays, and 8 baby homes (residential institutions). [...]

Promoting children's rights to nutrition and family care Every child has the right to good health and to grow up in family care, and these rights are affirmed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. SPOON works to fulfill these rights, and we recently submitted two statements to an upcoming UN [...]

Lutgard Musiime is a Master Trainer with SPOON and the Association of Religious (ARU) in Uganda. SPOON and ARU’s Catholic Care for Children in Uganda program are working together to improve nutrition and feeding for children in alternative care, children returning to their families, and children with disabilities. Lutgard and her fellow Master Trainers lead [...]

A recent study published in The Lancet shed light on a tragic and irreversible impact of the global pandemic. The study estimates that, as of April 2021, 1.5 million children have been newly orphaned, having experienced the death of primary caregivers due to COVID-19. We share this study to underscore the critical nature of the work [...]

At SPOON, we believe that no child should be denied the right to obtain their highest level of health and wellness due to disability or family status. This includes children right here in the United States. Through distance learning, SPOON has launched a new phase of our domestic program that aims to end malnutrition for [...]

Mulemba Ndonji is a Program Officer with Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) Zambia. Since 2018, CMMB and SPOON have been implementing a project focused on improving feeding and nutrition for children with disabilities, children without family care, and children returning to family care in Zambia. Read on to hear about Mulemba’s experience in her own [...]

This year, SPOON has seen dramatic growth in the number of children entered and assessed in our app, Count Me In. Much of this growth has come from Zambia, where more children than ever before are benefiting from SPOON’s programs and partnerships despite the ongoing effects of the pandemic. Supporting Families to Stay Together At the [...]

As we mark more than one year since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, SPOON is reflecting on the impact of the pandemic for children with disabilities and children without family care. To truly capture COVID-19’s impact, we must include a major secondary effect: child malnutrition. COVID-19 has been linked to increased food insecurity and [...]

SPOON recently began a partnership with UNICEF-Belarus through which we are training a diverse group of nearly 100 participants, including caregivers at baby homes, medical staff, and rehabilitation staff. Customizing Our Services In partnership with UNICEF-Belarus and with official approval from the Belarusian Ministry of Health, SPOON launched our training. As of March, participants have [...]

Engaging Locally In partnership with International Social Service (ISS) and local NGO Rapha International, SPOON is working to ensure that children in Haiti successfully transition from living in institutions to living with permanent families. Our program in Port-au-Prince, Haiti focuses on young people living at a transit center, which houses children whose families are unable [...]

SPOON is celebrating the passage of the Global Child Thrive Act. This new legislation will ensure US foreign assistance programs provide children with holistic early child development support, including children with disabilities and children without family care.  Early child development includes good nutrition, clean water, responsive caregiving, and protection from violence. These basic elements set [...]

Protecting The Most Vulnerable SPOON has been working with all of our global partners to adapt pandemic protective measures to the care of the children we serve. In 2020 and into the new year, SPOON’s Dr. Zeina Makhoul, Lauren Hughey and intern Jamie Magoon have worked with a coalition of partners to dig deep into the challenges facing [...]

At SPOON, we know that fulfilling our mission to nourish ALL children will require global effort from communities, governments, and advocates. To help build this movement, SPOON works with policy makers, advocates, and caregivers to champion every child’s right to a strong start. This month, our team participated in two international events highlighting the importance [...]

SPOON’s work on reducing anemia is featured in this year’s Micronutrient Forum Global Conference. The conference convened experts, practitioners, and policy makers to work towards a world where all people have access to essential micronutrients. SPOON’s poster, Advancing the SDGs’ Leave-no-one-behind Agenda: mHealth for Delivering an Anemia Prevention and Treatment Program for Children with Disabilities, [...]

Children with disabilities and children without family care face some of the highest risks of malnutrition. Three recent articles call attention to the urgent need to extend nutrition services to these vulnerable groups of children. They explore prevalence of disability worldwide, the impact of institutionalization on growth for young children, and how COVID-19 is affecting [...]

COVID-19 threatens the health and safety of children around the world. In addition to the immediate threat of infection, COVID-19 is placing more children at risk of malnutrition by increasing food insecurity and limiting access to health and nutrition services.  Protecting nutrition bolsters children’s immunity and supports their future health and development. The nutrition sector [...]

A Safe and Affordable Solution for Children with Feeding Difficulties All children need to be able to sit and eat comfortably and safely in order to be nourished. Unfortunately, affordable and effective seating solutions are scarce. For children with disabilities in low resource settings, this lack of safe seating can have devastating effects on growth [...]

SPOON’s distance learning program enters exciting phase Our partners at The Small Things Tanzania (TST) have continued to develop new skills to nourish the children in their care. In August, SPOON Nutrition Scientist, Zeina Makhoul along with Program Officer, Lauren Hughey conducted virtual trainings on the use of the HemoCue diagnostic tool used to test for hemoglobin levels and [...]

Prioritizing nutrition and feeding in alternative care, a new publication from SPOON, introduces the links between malnutrition, disability, and family separation. It also explores steps that alternative care programs can take to improve nutrition and feeding.  The paper draws on SPOON's experience improving nutrition and feeding in residential care settings, community-based programs, and in the [...]

“In 2019, members of SPOON’s Board of Trustees traveled to Zambia to see our curriculum and tools being put to work by those we have empowered. malesuada velit.

Through a partnership formed just as COVID-19 began its spread, SPOON’s work continues through distance learning to nourish the children at The Small Things Tanzania. Last November, SPOON Program Officer Lauren Hughey traveled to Tanzania and began a thriving partnership with The Small Things (TST) Tanzania. Together we immediately saw a great fit for SPOON’s interventions to support TST’s programming [...]

COVID-19 threatens the health and safety of children around the world. In addition to the immediate threat of infection, COVID-19 is placing more children at risk of malnutrition by increasing food insecurity and limiting access to health and nutrition services. Protecting nutrition bolsters children’s immunity and supports their future health and development. The nutrition sector [...]

How are social service workers working to prevent malnutrition in vulnerable children, and how can capacity building and stronger systems lead to better development outcomes for all children?

The ambition of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to reach everyone. The first target in SDG 2, end hunger, explicitly references the need to ensure access for vulnerable people; and the second calls us to end all forms of malnutrition for children under 5. Attaining equity and achieving the SDG targets will require nutrition practitioners, policy makers, and supporters to embrace a paradigm shift towards reaching children who have been excluded from nutrition efforts.