Dog food destined for starving children
redada - 01.02.2006 18:21
A Canterbury woman's plan to send powdered dog food to starving Kenyan children has not been given the thumbs up by Oxfam New Zealand.
 http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3555626a4560,00.html
A shipment of 6000 emergency packs of dog food mixture is bound for Rusinga Island on Kenya's Lake Victoria as part of a relief effort for the area's starving children.
Christine Drummond, founder of Mighty Mix dog food, said she was working with a Kenyan aid agency to provide the raw ingredients for a special nutritional food.
A shipment is due to leave Lyttelton in March.
But the scheme has failed to get the thumbs up from at least one international aid agency.
Drummond said the relief food, called NZ's Raw Dry Nourish, used the same ingredients as Mighty Mix dog food biscuits.
"The first plan was to send dog biscuits and change the vitamins then when I heard there were so many little children I could not send them a bicky," she said.
Instead she developed a powder that she says just needs water added to form a sustainable meal.
The formula was packed with freeze-dried meats – beef, mutton, pork and chicken, deer velvet, green lip mussel, kelp, garlic, egg, whole grain cereals and cold-pressed flax seed flour, she said.
"I made it out of ingredients they are used to eating, so the main bulk product is corn."
Drummond said she was exporting the raw ingredients to Kenya where it would be mixed by charity staff according to her recipe.
Drummond was devised the mixture after talking to North Canterbury woman Lois McGirr whose daughter had recently returned from a poverty-stricken village in Kenya. The pair had teamed up to get the food to Kenya.
McGirr said she was distributing the food through the Mercy Mission charity, based in Kenya, and was promoting the food as a "nutritional supplement" rather than dog food.
"I do not think it's deceitful. I would be happy to tell them the full story but as long as the doctors she (Drummond) has been working with have been okaying it, I don't think it's an issue. It's not just a dog food."
The Press tried to contact the Mercy Mission through a number on its website, but calls were met by a recorded message.
Mighty Mix dog food agent Gaynor Siviter said that if the dog food mixture helped the Kenyan children as it helped dogs, it would be "marvellous".
"The dogs thrive on it. They have energy, put on weight. It's bizarre but if it's edible and it works for these people then it's a brilliant idea. It beats eating rice."
Oxfam New Zealand executive director Barry Coates said he had not heard of the scheme but it was unlikely to achieve the desired outcome.
"I think it is much better to get food supplies from within Kenya rather than sending it around the world.
"Sending food shipments from New Zealand to Kenya does not seem to be the best use of time and effort and the fact it's coming from a dog food manufacturer could make people suspicious."
Drought, crop failures and massive food shortages in parts of the east African country have left millions of people without access to adequate food supplies.
Oxfam International estimates the number of people at risk is between 2.5 million and 3.5 million.
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