Recently, SPOON had a chance to collaborate with USAID Advancing Nutrition in an effort to improve nutritional care for children with feeding difficulties and disabilities. This work resulted in the creation and launch of a Feeding and Disability Resource Bank, an online repository of resources that support those designing and implementing nutrition programs and policies for children with disabilities.
SPOON’s Role in the Technical Advisory Group
Advancing Nutrition is USAID’s nutrition-specific initiative that provides technical support and implements projects. To better understand the needs of children with feeding difficulties and disabilities and gaps in the resources addressing these needs, USAID Advancing Nutrition consulted Dr. Zeina Makhoul, SPOON’s Nutrition Scientist, and Kate Miller, SPOON’s Disability & Feeding Specialist.
Through these meetings, Advancing Nutrition found that that current policies and programs provide insufficient nutritional support to children with feeding difficulties and disabilities. Based on this finding, a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) was established aiming to lead the creation of an online collection of disability-inclusive resources. Mishelle Rudzinksi, SPOON’s Co-Founder and Executive Director, was invited to be a member of the TAG. In this role, Mishelle had the opportunity to provide feedback on the content and dissemination plan for the Resource Bank.
Feeding and Disability Resource Bank
The Feeding and Disability Resource Bank is a now live on USAID’s website. It is designed for use by nutrition and disability program leaders and staff at governmental and funding institutions. The bank includes a variety of resources such as training curricula, assessment tools, and research articles that address the following topics:
- Identifying Feeding Difficulties
- Managing Feeding Difficulties
- Identifying Disabilities
- Supporting Children with Disabilities and Their Families
- Promoting Disability Inclusion
SPOON contributed four resources to the bank: a brief describing our training package; a link to our own online library of downloadable resources on nutrition and feeding best practices and advocacy; a link to our free online course on nutrition, feeding, and healthy growth for children with disabilities; and a brief describing Count Me In.
Sharing Our Resources Widely
In December 2022, Lauren Hughey, SPOON’s Program Officer, presented to 300 people from nearly 70 countries during a USAID webinar on integrating nutrition and feeding interventions into systems of care. She discussed the four resources SPOON included in the Resource Bank and how to put them into practice for strengthening systems of care for children with disabilities.
The nutrition and feeding needs of children with disabilities have historically been overlooked in the global health sector. The creation of this Resource Bank by USAID Advancing Nutrition indicates an important prioritization of this issue by a major funder with worldwide reach. SPOON is thrilled to have been involved in this initiative since its inception and to have had the opportunity to share our work and resources so widely.
