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Post Harvest
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| We Are Grateful for You |
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| At
this special time of year that has been set aside to give thanks and
reflect on all the good fortunes that have been bestowed us, it gives
us great pleasure to say Thank You to each of you. As our donors,
volunteers and supporters please know that what you do to help the poor
and marginalized around the world is appreciated by many. Warm
wishes to each of you and your families at this special time of year. |
| CTI Volunteer Visits Malawi |
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Over
the past two years the Northwest Wisconsin Synod of the ELCA, in
conjunction with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Malawi (ELCM), has
shipped over 30 Omega VI grinders to Malawi. During the month of
August, CTI volunteer Hans Zoerb visited Malawi to evaluate the impact
that these grinders were having on the lives of those who were being
served.
Hans reports that the distribution of the
grinders is under the supervision of a nutritionist employed by the
Lutheran Development Services of Malawi (LDSM). The primary emphasis of
the LDSM is food security. More specifically, their emphasis is
on maximizing commodity production, storage, and conversion  to
value added food, food products and food ingredients. Since conversion
is part of CTI's core competency, this objective fits well with CTI.
The LDSM is very interested in the grinders and supports the training
and use of the machines for the production of peanut butter and flours
from soy and maize. They also support the use of these machines in
emerging micro businesses based at the village level.
The
ELCM has placed a very high priority on organizing and developing
successful women's enterprise groups at the village level in order to:
elevate the role of women in their societies, make women more effective
in combating hunger, and recognizing women as a point of introduction
of new ideas and techniques to the communities. The added importance of
women's groups in villages is their connection to the feeding centers.
In many of these villages, peanut butter is the primary product because
the Omega grinder can produce relatively large  quantities
of product. Ground, roasted soy was also a significant part of
their production. Both peanut butter and roasted soy bean flour are
packaged and sold in 250 gram jars; or, in the case of the feeding
stations, carried home by the children.
The program has
been so successful that the ELCM is targeting to introduce an
additional 15 grinders in the near future so that every outreach point
will have their own grinder.
Hans' full report will be
posted on the CTI website soon, so please check there for additional
details of his week long investigative trip. |
| Crops and Countries |
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As
the global food crisis increasingly impacts millions of people, we are
attempting to answer the questions: What nutritious crops are readily
available? Where are they grown? How can CTI's post harvest
technologies make the nutrients in those native crops available to the
people who grow them?
After polling our volunteers and
consulting with various agricultural agencies, we developed this chart
which we are casually calling "Crops by Country."
On this
chart you will find those crops and locations where CTI's post harvest
technology is currently at work ("Y" or green), and those countries
where we know the crops shown are grown, but where our post harvest
technologies have not yet been introduced ("P" or yellow). Click
on the sample below to view the chart.
As
we consider the appropriate technologies for processing these crops in
remote rural areas, we are learning that the yield (the percentage of
seeds recovered) from current manual processing methods are often as
low as 35%. The simple mechanized systems we are developing are
generating yields from prototype models of around 75%. If field
test units confirm these results, our technologies can effectively
double the yield these farmers and their families will get from their
crops.
Think of the impact on the global food supply! An impact made real through your partnership with us. |
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Thank You, Volunteers |
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Volunteers are the heart and soul of CTI. To
recognize their hard work and dedication we held a Volunteer
Recognition Event earlier this month at the Biosystems and Bioproducts
Engineering Department of the University of Minnesota. The
turnout was impressive (over 40 volunteers!) and we wanted to take this
opportunity to again mention how much we value their hard
work. Our volunteers - who are engineers, food
scientists,  volunteer
travelers, Board members, Information Technology providers, art and
design experts... the list goes on - make CTI what it is! They champion
projects, develop technologies, support our work at home and overseas,
and keep CTI moving forward. Thank you!
As another way to reognize our volunteers, we will begin
regularly featuring short biographies of different volunteers in our
Post Harvest. For our first segment, we'd like to highlight our 2008 Volunteer of the Year, Ruth MacDonald. Ruth
is the one to thank for our beautiful 2007 and 2008 Annual
Reports, as well as our new website that will be coming out in early
2009. She has volunteered many hours of her time and
expertise to create these beautiful publications, and is revamping our
website as part of her capstone project for her Masters Degree in
Scientific and Technical Communications at Metropolitan State
University. Ruth was introduced to CTI by volunteer Steve
Clarke shortly after her involvement with the Peace Corps took her to
Mali in 2003. At the time, Ruth and her husband Mike were
searching for groups to volunteer with and, after seeing the need in
Mali for simple, appropriate technologies to assist the people  in processing their crops, were drawn to CTI's mission to create just such solutions. Ruth majored in Biological and Pre-Medical Illustration at Iowa
State University and went on to work as a medical photographer and
forensic photographer (among other things) before heading to Mali with
the Peace Corps.
Ruth now works at American Medical
Systems as a technical writer, and enjoys biking, camping, and working
in the garden where, her husband says, "She really gets into
compost."
Thanks for all your hard work, Ruth! |
| Creatively Support CTI |
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Donation Gift CardAs the holiday season
approaches, why not give the Gift of Hope with a CTI Donation Gift
Card. Show your family, friends, clients,  or
associates you care by giving a donation in their name. For each
donation we will send you a card which you may give to the recipient to
acknowledge your donation. Your contribution will help alleviate
hunger and poverty through the development and application of
technologies. A minimum donation of $10 is requested per card.
You may send a check or call with your credit card information to order
gift cards. GoodSearch.comHow often do you
"Google"? You know, search for something on the internet?
Now you can benefit CTI by doing your searches with
GoodSearch.com. It's a new Yahoo-powered search engine that
donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the
charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search
engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and help CTI! Just go to
http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=886954.
Download the GoodSearch tool bar for Internet Explorer or add it to
your search options in Firefox. Get more information at http://www.goodsearch.com/toolbars.aspx. And, be sure to spread the word! | |
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