Editor’s note: This article has been updated with more details, including an interview with Mana’s CEO and political reaction.
Mana Nutrition, a maker of peanut butter in Georgia, said the U.S. Agency for International Development has restored $12 million in supply contracts less than a week after terminating them.
Mana, whose product feeds malnourished children overseas, received word late Sunday from USAID that the contracts have been restored, said Mark Moore, Mana’s co-founder and CEO.
“Last night, they said, ‘No, no, no, that was a mistake. We are reinstating that contract.’ … Which is great news for us. So, obviously, we’re elated,” Moore said in a telephone interview Monday. “But it is a bit of a yo-yo, as you can see. It’s been stop, go, stop, go. Now we’re back to work.”
More than $20 million in additional Mana contracts with USAID also were in jeopardy after the federal agency sent a termination letter to the nonprofit last week. The letter, dated Feb. 26, stated Mana’s supply contracts were “not aligned with Agency priorities” and that “continuing this program is not in the national interest.”
Notices sent out in mass mailings last week terminated over 90% of USAID’s contracts for humanitarian and development work around the world, according to The Associated Press, as the Trump administration moved to rapidly dismantle the federal overseas aid agency.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
Mana makes nutrient-dense food pouches containing milk, multivitamins and peanut butter. The canceled USAID contracts affected countries including South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Madagascar.
The nonprofit has a roughly 150,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Fitzgerald, a small rural city in Ben Hill County, and employs about 130 people. It has grown quickly in the last 15 years.
The terminated contracts represented 35% of Mana’s orders, enough to feed 300,000 children, according to Mana.
Moore said Mana has another $23 million in contracts to make more therapeutic food for USAID, in addition to the $12 million in contracts that were terminated and restored.
On Monday, he said it wasn’t immediately clear to him what might have prompted the restoration.
“I don’t want to be too critical of the (Trump) administration … or unfair, but I think they’ve been in a state of sort of chopping with a chain saw to use a metaphor that Elon Musk uses,” Moore said. “It wasn’t surgery with a scalpel, and at least now they’re reflecting. … I feel fairly confident that we’re past that yo-yo effect.”
President Donald Trump has tapped Musk to help slash government costs through the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. A major target has been USAID, where staff cleared out their desks last week after most were put on leave or fired.
On Jan. 29, Mana received word to stop producing for USAID, but then on Feb. 6 got a message to resume, Moore said. More recently, for about a month, Mana has been operating somewhat in limbo.
Moore, who was traveling by car as he shared the news Monday of the contract reversal, was bound for South Georgia and Mana’s Fitzgerald plant.
“We’ve kind of shielded our workers from knowing all of the back-and-forth,” he said. “We try to keep a steady presentation that we’re going to keep working no matter what. Even though we were worried, we thought it probably wasn’t helpful just to tell everybody every time there was a change.”
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
Moore said the packaging that holds Mana’s product is required to have the USAID logo and the words “A gift of the American people” as part of USAID contracts, which represent more than 90% of Mana’s business.
“We had stopped making that packet because we didn’t want to be stuck with it,” he said. “But last night at midnight we switched back to the USAID packaging.”
Moore said Mana has had about $55 million in recent contracts with USAID, including about $20 million for food supplies the nonprofit already has produced and shipped.
He said Mana is waiting to be paid for those earlier contracts, even though most of them are past the 30-day payment window. About 400,000 boxes from the earlier contracts are sitting in a warehouse in Savannah, he added.
“But we also want to be patient because we know there’s a lot of reduction in (USAID) staff. Many of the names we were familiar with at USAID have been furloughed or eliminated,” Moore said.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat from Georgia, urged the Trump administration last week to reverse the termination of Mana’s contracts, calling it a “reckless action” that “will hurt Georgia farmers and cost hardworking Georgians their livelihoods.”
U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, a Republican who represents Georgia’s Eighth Congressional District, which includes Fitzgerald, applauded the reversal Monday.
“(Mana) is an incredible mission-driven organization, and I am thankful to the administration for reinstating their contracts. The administration is working to ensure that all U.S. foreign assistance aligns with our national security interests and global mission. (Mana) is committed to ending child malnutrition and is an organization our country should be proud of,” Scott said in a statement shared by a spokesperson.
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