Changemakers in Rhode Island often say that the state’s small size makes it easy to find collaborators to help get things done. And that was certainly the case for David Sarlitto, vice president of corporate giving at Ocean State Job Lot. When he wanted to help feed 30,000 people living 8,000 miles away, he simply had to walk across the street.
Sarlitto’s neighbor is Edesia Nutrition, a non-profit organization working to end malnutrition. It produces a nutrient-dense, ready-to-use therapeutic food called Plumpy’Nut. Its production line is capable of producing enough food for 415 babies an hour, and it uses its global network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to get food to people experiencing extreme hunger. But last summer, Edesia faced what seemed to be an insurmountable impasse. Cases of Plumpy’Nut were languishing on shelves in their facility, and the expiration date was looming.
Many of Edesia’s NGO partners work in collaboration with the US Agency for International Development (USAID). But Edesia got caught up in a political battle when the federal government cut 83 percent of USAID’s contracts and programs last spring. “USAID had contracted with Edesia to purchase shelves of Plumpy’Nut. So it belonged to them, but they were rejecting invoices,” Sarlitto explains. That not only resulted in layoffs at Edesia, but put children at risk of dying of malnutrition while waiting for political pressure to get that food off the shelves.
Ocean State Job Lot co-founder Alan Perlman read about the logjam in his Sunday newspaper and immediately called Sarlitto to see what could be done. “Sunday morning phone calls are the nature of our business,” laughs Sarlitto, alluding to the idea that need doesn’t neatly fit into a 40-hour work week.
Sarlitto says that Ocean State Job Lot regularly engages in a quiet form of activism, utilizing its network of retail outlets,
shipping partners, warehouses, and wholesalers to serve those in need. It takes the form of its well-known annual coat drive or food drives, but also results in ambulances being sent to Ukraine or medical equipment being shipped worldwide. Sarlitto tapped into that network to support Edesia.
Sarlitto reached out to one of his local partner organizations, Community Provisions, which put him in touch with World Vision International, a faith-based relief development organization. World Vision International agreed to purchase enough Plumpy’Nut to fill 14 trailers and ship it to South Sudan, which is currently experiencing a hunger crisis, but they didn’t have the means to get it from the Rhode Island factory to a port. “I already have trucks going down to Maryland. So why not have them detour to New Jersey?” wondered Sarlitto, referring to the Port of New York and New Jersey, the largest shipping port on the East Coast.
The first shipment went out with celebratory fanfare. Seven trailers left Edesia’s North Kingstown factory in a bumper-to-bumper convoy led by a Community Provisions truck. Rhode Island State Police escorted the convoy to the Connecticut border, where it was passed off to the Connecticut State Police. The convoy crossed from state to state in this fashion, all the way to the port. Just three weeks after Perlman read his newspaper, enough food for tens of thousands of people was making its way to East Africa.
“I can’t manufacture the food. I can’t distribute the food. But I can connect the dots to make sure this project could happen,” says Sarlitto. Not only is Sarlitto planning a second shipment of 12 trailers, he has also committed to include Plumpy’Nut on every truck that goes to New Jersey, introduced Edesia to a new customer, and created enough fanfare around the first shipment that Edesia is now flooded with calls from NGOs willing to work with the company directly.
Sarlitto says that Rhode Island’s unique market makes action like this possible not just for people across the globe, but for neighbors in our own state. “Rhode Island has broad demographics. Its population is concentrated. It has only a handful of media outlets. You can talk to a lot of people quickly and inexpensively and learn a lot. And those things are integral to solving societal issues,” says Sarlitto. “We could conquer food insecurity in this state.” Learn more at EdesiaNutrition.org
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