WVEC: How a Suffolk peanut company is helping Operation Smile feed children in developing countries
About five years ago, George Birdsong found one new use for the peanut stockpile.
"Started in about 2017, we started realizing that [Operation Smile] had children coming for cleft lip operations, but they were not healthy enough to be operated on. I read that on a bulletin, and I thought, 'We've got a product in the peanut business that maybe that can solve that,'" Birdsong said.
Birdsong Peanuts began supplying peanut inventory to the manufacturing company "MANA" that would create peanut butter and add powdered milk, vitamins and minerals to create a "Ready-to-Use Thereauputic Food" peanut paste-like substance, also known as RUTF.