Atmit

We need to do a bit of back tracking here.

Monday, we again traveled to Salt Lake City for training. Our first stop was Welfare Square where we received instruction in the Welfare system and were then given a tour of Welfare Square. Again, we are amazed at the scope of what the Church is doing. The Welfare System grows and/or processes it's own floor, vegetables, soaps, toothpaste, bread, cheese, gelatin, butter, potatos (including dehydrated), peanut butter, jam, honey, drink mixes (i.e "Koolaid"), pasta -- and the list goes on and on and on.

Stored in graneries at Welfare Square is 61 million pounds of wheat! And those graneries are not the largest owned by the Church!

But perhaps the most impressive item -- to us -- is a poridge called Atmit. It was develped originally by Ethopia who (as a result of previous postive experience with the Church in Welfare needs) approached the Church and asked if we could help produce it. Atmit was originally a mixture of fine oat flour and goats milk and was intended to help divert the growing problem of starving children in Ethopia. BYU did an extensive examination of it's nutritional value and found it to be exceptional. Dehydrated milk was substituted and vitamins, minerals and sugar were added. The Church now ships over 1 million pounds of the mixture to needed areas around the world.

They showed us a picture of an eight year old African girl who weighed 20 pounds! To say she was nothing but skin and bones would be an understatement. I was certain they would tell us that the little girl and died and that was what they were trying to prevent. Then they turned the page and showed us a picture of a healthy young girl who appeared to be happily engaged in a useful activity and told us it was the same young girl six months later.

It was a good day.