Steven King
The goal of the Quonset Development Corp. (QDC) is to provide each of our over 200 companies with a platform where they can achieve their business goals. Success looks different for each company but fostering their growth has made Quonset Business Park (QBP) the leading engine of economic development and job growth in Rhode Island. Quonset company Edesia recently celebrated their 10th anniversary of feeding malnourished children across the globe, and their continued growth will benefit millions of people all over the world. Edesia is a non-profit, social enterprise that manufactures life-saving foods that alleviate malnutrition in countries across the globe. Their main product, Plumpy’Nut, is a portable, ready-to-eat, shelf-stable product that treats severe acute malnutrition in children. Edesia manufactures 1.5 million packets of ready-to-use food each day, at under 50 cents per packet. One packet of Plumpy’Nut provides a day’s worth of nutrition for the world’s most vulnerable children.
Since opening their 85,000 s/f, facility at QBP in 2010, Edesia has fed over 12 million children in nearly 60 countries in partnership with global health and aid organizations. Edesia has grown rapidly in the past decade and now employs over 100 people from 28 different countries.
To celebrate 10 years at Quonset, Edesia founder and CEO Navyn Salem recently took guests on a virtual journey through the Central African Republic, Guatemala, Somalia, Sudan, Venezuela, and beyond, showing how Edesia is working to end the greatest global crisis of our time: hunger and malnutrition. Salem was joined by special guests Nicholas Kristof (Pulitzer Prize-Winning NY Times columnist), Cynthia McFadden (senior NBC news correspondent), Hamdi Ulukaya (Chobani founder and CEO), and Lupe Fiasco (Rapper) during the event. You can watch the full event online.
“The space we have here in Quonset has allowed our non-profit business to grow along with the needs of children around the world and our partners at UNICEF, World Food Programme and USAID,” said Salem. “We were proud to celebrate our 10 years of service and know how much more work there is to be done to help end malnutrition, especially as a result of this pandemic.”
QBP has provided an ideal location for Edesia to grow. With over 200 companies and more than 12,000 employees spread across 3,200 acres, Quonset provides space for our companies to expand, including 94 acres of land currently available for new facilities. Our team has also built a flex industrial campus, perfect for companies who may have outgrown their current facilities, and need flexible manufacturing or warehouse space between 10,000 and 40,000 s/f.
As Edesia continues to grow their automation processes, QDC can provide ample space for further expansion. Edesia’s mission to alleviate pediatric malnutrition, a 100% preventable global health crisis, requires the modern and efficient transportation solutions that QBP offers. Quonset companies have full access to the Port of Davisville, RI’s only public port; 14 miles of freight rail lines in the park and a direct connection to the Northeast corridor; major highways like I-95 to reach TF Green Airport (RI), Logan Airport (Boston) or JFK Airport (NY); and the Quonset State Airport. Looking toward the next 10 years, Edesia is developing new products, hiring more employees, ordering new equipment and scaling up their operations to meet increased demand for ready to use food products caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Edesia recently launched MeWe, a family of delicious peanut butter snacks, to support the nutritional needs of babies, kids and adults in the United States.
The QDC team is proud to support the life-changing impact Edesia is making across the globe. We look forward to their continued growth at Quonset and the impact of their groundbreaking work.
To support Edesia’s life-saving mission, please visit their website to learn more, https://www.edesianutrition.org/get-involved/.
Steven King, PE, is the managing director of the Quonset Development Corp., North Kingstown, R.I.