The coupon book will feature branded products including dietary supplements, natural personal care products, natural foods, organic foods, and other products. Approximately 1 million coupon books will be printed for distribution in October to tie in with Child Health Month. The books will be available to consumers at leading natural and organic products retailers throughout the country. For more information about the program and to find out how to get involved, please visit our Unconventional Angels page!

Pharmachem Laboratories, Inc.
Pharmachem Labs has been a substantial in-kind donor to Vitamin Angels since 2003. The company donates the premix for the children’s multivitamins manufactured by Tishcon. Currently, Pharmachem Labs’ monthly donations represent 2.5 million doses of children’s multivitamins. The donations go primarily to our project in the bateyes of the Dominican Republic that reaches over 55,000 children, and to other Thrive to Five projects around the world. Pharmachem, Vitamin Angels greatly appreciates your lasting support!

The company is partnering with Vitamin Angels’ and our passion of providing essential nutrition to children in need. Starting this month, you can sign up for the ScalePassion five-week, comprehensive online course, work at your own pace, and end up with an operations roadmap that will include a clear, concise, passion-based mission, a vivid description of your three-year vision, and a six-month action plan. In addition, you will receive five hours of direct coaching from Robert U. Craven, LaunchNatural founder, and former CEO of Garden of Life and NewOrganics. When you register, 15% of your tuition fee goes directly to Vitamin Angels. Register Now! (When prompted for a code during the registration process enter: Angels).

Build your Twitter following and support Vitamin Angels with Twollars!
What are Twollars? Twollars are the currency of Twitter. You can give twollars when someone helps you by tweeting useful information, sharing a tip, writing an inspiring tweet or if you are just feeling generous. Everyone on Twitter begins with 50 twollars. Find your twollars by going to: www.twollars.com/yourtwitterusername (i.e. twollars.com/vitaminangels). The website even tracks how many twollars you have.

The point of twollars is not just to circulate them, but to donate them. You can donate twollars to charities just by tweeting (i.e. "give @vitaminangels 10 twollars to provide 4 children with vital nutrition"). Individuals and companies can then purchase (in real dollars), twollars from the charity and begin giving them out.

Twollars version two recently launched with Vitamin Angels a featured charity on the main page. If you’re on Twitter, you can donate twollars to us simply by tweeting. If you are an individual or company interested in purchasing twollars, please visit our twollars page or contact Sarah at sgasca@vitaminangels.org. Purchasing our twollars and tweeting them are a great way to show your support for Vitamin Angels. Thanks and we’ll see you on Twitter!

Eight years ago on the day of 9.11, I remember finding myself at Vitamin Angels a few hours after the World Trade towers had collapsed. That day, Vitamin Angels felt like a refuge from a world gone mad. In the past few weeks, Vitamin Angels has again been a haven, only this time from a natural disaster, the Jesusita Fire, and our home burning down. The body blow feels similar, something so intense that you are left reeling from the impact. And I know there is a huge difference.

I recognized the same difference when I was interviewed by the LA Times the day after the fire, and mentioned the refugees in Kenya who I had been with just 4 days before the fire. These people had to flee their homes for fear of being killed by their neighbors and rival tribes. After the fire, I realized we were both homeless and yet the situation in Eldoret, Kenya was so much worse than anything my family was facing. At the refugee camp (now 2,000 people, down from 20,000, 1 1/2 years ago), people do not have any secure source of food, medical care, or education for their children, and people are literally dying every week from malaria, TB and yes, AIDS.

The situation around the world today reflects the same state of affairs in the refugee camp I visited in Kenya. Because of the economic crises in the world today, more children are chronically malnourished and many are starving. To put this into context, early this year the Micronutrient Initiative estimated that an additional 44 million children are suffering from permanent physical and cognitive setbacks, as a result of malnutrition linked to the current financial crises. This occurs every time there is a financial crisis or food shortages, the children who are the most vulnerable, get hit the hardest.

I was up at our home the other day and though it is all ashes, I saw buds coming out on the mulberry trees, crows and wrens perching even in the burnt out lemon tree, and new leaves unfurling in the ivy. There is rebirth in Santa Barbara, even in the midst of the destruction. Yet it is important to remember that for the children who will never reach their intellectual or physical capacity (because of the chronic malnutrition of their mothers pre- and post-conception), for the children who have gone blind from lack of vitamin A, and for the babies who are born with severe birth defects because of malnutrition during pregnancy, the results are permanent. Our only option is to get essential nutrients to these children and mothers before the problems occur. The time to do this is now. We don’t always get to choose when a disaster will strike but we always get to choose how we want to respond.


Best,
Howard Schiffer, President

The joint report, "Investing in the Future: A united call to action on vitamin and mineral deficiencies," recognizes the debilitating effects of micronutrient deficiencies on individuals and nations as a whole. Mothers who suffer from malnutrition may die from childbirth, leaving children without vital care. Children themselves have insufficient micronutrient intake and, if they survive infancy, are weak and prone to disease.

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Procuring Food Aid Closer to Recipients is Faster and Cheaper, but Challenges Exist in Securing Nutritious Food and in Implementation
According to the United States Government and Accountability office (GAO), the US is the world’s largest food aid donor, contributing over half of all global food aid supplies. Recently, however, the GAO has acknowledged limitations in the efficiency and effectiveness of this aid, releasing a report at the end of last month that investigates the distribution of US food aid through local and regional procurement (LRP) methods. The GAO issued the report in order to investigate the benefits and difficulties of securing food aid in regions closer to the recipient country.

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There is no cost to attend this event, it is included as part of your NBJ Summit registration. If you have not yet registered for The NBJ Summit, there is still time. When prompted for a 'PROMO CODE' enter: ANGELS09 for $200 off your registration fee and to reserve your spot at the Vitamin Angels event!

Register Today!