By SHELLY STRAUTZ-SPRINGBORN
Michigan Correspondent

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Silk Soy Milk/WhiteWave Foods has pledged $75,000 over the next three years to the American Soybean Assoc. (ASA) World Soy Foundation (WSF) to increase its partnership with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA).

The project provides nutritious meals to school children in Ghana, as well as supporting sustainable economic development in the West African country.

“The new funding will allow the World Soy Foundation to purchase, transport and install a VitaGoat soymilk processing machine, as well as train operators and provide a year’s worth of soybeans,” said ASA board member Scott Fritz, a soybean farmer from Winamac, Ind., and WSF board member. “As a result, the VitaGoat will produce enough soymilk to feed a school of 280 children for at least one school year and have sufficient product to sell to the community as a sustainable small enterprise.”

The machine will be placed in a rural community in the northern region of Ghana where local farmers grow soybeans.

Mary Lou Smith of Petersburg, Mich., saw firsthand the benefits of the VitaGoat system during a nearly two-week trip to southern Africa in August.

“We visited a farm where the VitaGoat and SoyCow projects are working,” she said. “VitaGoat is a machine similar to a pressure cooker. It has barrels that have a holding tank in the top where you put water in. A fire is built in the bottom and it makes that water get hot and boil, creating steam that goes into a cooker.”
Smith said the soybeans are first soaked and then ground. Because many places do not have electricity, she said a grinder that is powered by a person pedaling a bicycle is used. “Ground beans are then added to the cooker and through the cooking process, soy milk is extracted,” she added.

Through the program, the African people are taught how to use the equipment as well as the value of soy in their diets. Smith said in addition to drinking soy milk, the milk may be used to make tofu, soy yogurt and other products.

Silk Soy Milk/WhiteWave Foods first contributed to the WSF when the foundation was created by the ASA and other soybean grower organizations in late 2006. That initial support of $20,000 aided ADRA’s school feeding in Ghana, which the WSF leveraged through contributions from Iowa soybean farmers.

“WhiteWave is once again walking the talk of sustainability in the campaign against global hunger,” said WSF Executive Director Jim Hershey. “This effort will encourage children to attend school, where they can receive a nutritious meal, while it advances local food production and economic opportunity.”

This contribution by Silk Soy Milk/WhiteWave Foods, headquartered in Broomfield, Colo., is particularly timely, given recent reports of increased hunger around the world.

In September, the Food and Agriculture Organization revised the official number of hungry people worldwide up to 923 million, and projects the number of urgently hungry could climb to more than a billion next year.

“Our partnership has allowed us to strengthen our relationship with the community, local farmers, the national and the local government,” said Dr. William Brown, country director for ADRA Ghana. “We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with the World Soy Foundation in the future, enabling us to make an even greater impact throughout the entire nation.”