Our Impact
Children with disabilities are three times more likely to be malnourished. That’s not because their needs can't be met, but because the systems around them weren't built to count them.
We are changing that. Since 2007, SPOON's training and tools have reached over 150,000 children in 26 countries, through the health workers, rehabilitation specialists, preschool teachers, and caregivers who see these children every day. The challenge is the same from Kazakhstan to Vietnam to Uganda to Croatia: a child whose growth is faltering, a caregiver who wants to help, and a health system with no way to support either one. Our model closes those gaps. Train the people closest to the child. Provide the caregiver with the solutions she needs. And get the healthcare system the data to ensure the changes reach all children.
The numbers behind the work
Service providers trained through SPOON's program have conducted more than 35,000 assessments worldwide using Count Me In, our nutrition and feeding app. Children they support see nutrition improvements that far exceed typical program benchmarks:
- a 22% reduction in wasting
- a 38% reduction in anemia
- a 7% reduction in stunting
- an 11% reduction in children showing one or more signs of malnutrition
(These are preliminary data from 6,496 growth assessments in our app Count Me In as of June, 2026.)
Each assessment represents a child whose status is now visible to the health system and a data point in the evidence base that powers our advocacy.
Data leads to change
We don't stop at one child, one clinic, or one country. We use what we learn to push for systemic change.
- Uganda: The government of Uganda updated its Maternal, Infant, Young Child and Adolescent Nutrition guidelines to include a dedicated section on children with disabilities, with technical input from SPOON and our partners. SPOON also generated new data on the nutrition and feeding needs of children with disabilities and children without family care, giving decision makers in Uganda the information they need to nourish all children.
- United States: SPOON advocated for the passage of the Global Child Thrive Act, which now requires U.S. foreign assistance programs to include nutrition and early childhood development for children with disabilities and children outside family care.
- Vietnam: SPOON’s nutrition and feeding curriculum was integrated into national training systems, reaching all daycare providers who care for vulnerable children in Vietnam.
- Zambia: With our partners, we filled critical gaps in national data on children with disabilities and children without family care and developed a national policy brief on Mainstreaming Disability-Inclusive Nutrition, putting concrete recommendations in front of the policymakers and health system leaders who can act on them.
- Global: SPOON works with UN agencies, leading global NGOs, and global coalitions to ensure their nutrition programs include children who would otherwise be excluded. In 2025, our statement to the United Nations called for more attention to the nutrition needs of children with disabilities.
To date, our advocacy work has improved the lives of more than 22 million children worldwide.
What we're building toward
Two hundred fifty million children are still being missed by the systems designed to nourish them. The training exists. The tools exist. The evidence is there to share. What's left is the work of getting them to every health worker, every clinic, every government, so all children are counted, included, and nourished.