To explore the relationship between nature and nutrition, the ICCF Group talks to Elizabeth Gutting, Storyteller at the Eleanor Crook Foundation, the U.S. organization that invests in research, policy analysis, and advocacy to end global malnutrition.
Elizabeth, please introduce the issue of malnutrition and how it relates to conservation on an international scale.
Malnutrition is the leading cause of death for kids worldwide. Children who survive malnutrition may have life-altering developmental challenges, severely limiting their potential. Malnutrition contributes to political instability, conflict, mass population displacement, and lost economic growth.
But malnutrition isn’t a standalone problem. There’s an intricate connection between malnutrition and conservation: nature is being destroyed, and as a result the climate is changing – and both of these factors make it hard for people to grow food. And food insecurity leads to a dangerous cycle. People are fighting over fewer and fewer natural resources, which can lead to instability, conflict, and radicalization. All of these problems are rooted in how we manage natural resources – and all of them come back to the simple fact that any family’s goal is to be able to feed their children, so that the next generation can thrive and contribute to building a stronger community.
Focusing on its efforts within the conservation sector, tell us about the Eleanor Crook Foundation, its approach and impact, in the U.S. and around the world.
The Eleanor Crook Foundation is a U.S.-based philanthropy focused exclusively on malnutrition. We were co-founded in 1997 by Eleanor Butt Crook and her late husband, Ambassador William H. Crook. For decades, Eleanor has been a pioneer in advocacy and grantmaking to fight global malnutrition. Her family’s leadership through their grocery company, H-E-B, helped spearhead the national food banking movement in the U.S., and continues to donate millions each year to fight hunger across the nation.
ECF invests in research that proves what methods work, policy analysis that drives system reform, and advocacy that makes the case for urgent scale-up of lifesaving malnutrition solutions.
Decades of evidence and overwhelming expert consensus point to high-impact, cost-effective solutions for malnutrition. Right now, the majority of those solutions are not reaching those who need them most, even though they’re proven to save and improve lives. We are committed to changing that.
In light of your work in the nation’s capital, why and how can U.S. policies and public-private partnerships support and advance the work of the foundation?
The United States has always played a vital role as a leader in global health. To answer this question, we have a story of what can happen when U.S. policies and public-private partnerships come together. Malnutrition champions in Congress will be familiar with this story, because their leadership was crucial.
In 2023, U.S. leadership was responsible for saving 1.2 million children’s lives with a life-saving medical food known as Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF). Coverage rates increased to 73% – a doubling of coverage. 1.2 million is a number that is nothing short of extraordinary. It’s the result of historic funding for malnutrition from the U.S. government and other public and private donors, and the coordination and hard work of American farmers – who grow the ingredients that go into RUTF – and RUTF producers. 1.2 million lives: that’s a number that shows what is possible when resources and political will come together to scale a proven solution to malnutrition. This kind of action keeps our country safe, because as long as thousands of children die from malnutrition each day, we will never have a peaceful world.
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