Collaboration with the Church
We are thrilled to share exciting news about Bountiful Children’s latest endeavor to foster collaboration with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for an even greater societal impact.
Sara Walker Hyde, our new team member
We are pleased to introduce Sara Walker Hyde, a valuable addition to our team, who will be spearheading efforts to establish cooperative programs between our organizations. With this collaboration, we could amplify our efforts and make an exponential difference in the lives of children in need. Sara is an international public health specialist who received her Master’s in Public Health Degree from George Washington University. She is a returned missionary from Korea. Sara has served as President of the Bountiful Children’s Foundation in the past and has led multiple groups of interns to screen children in Central and South America.
Sara Walker Hyde
Church press release
The Church has recently unveiled its commitment to major organizations, much larger than Bountiful, that they will be helping through the Global Priorities arm of the Church:
Explore two Church Press Releases:
Bountiful and the Church of Jesus Christ
Additionally, a newly formed division within the Church is dedicated to special projects aimed at enhancing child nutrition for members. We envision a powerful partnership in the future between Bountiful and the Church, united in the common goal of reaching and assisting more children in need. In this regard, Bountiful has prepared the following statement of intent:
Bountiful’s statement regarding the new Church division
in which Bountiful hopes to be more involved:
The Church of Jesus Christ recently announced that it has donated $44 million to alleviate global malnutrition. The Bountiful Children’s Foundation is excited to see this commitment to promote food security. We have received several inquiries regarding why we were not mentioned in the press release and whether or not we receive support from the Church.
First, this donation was made by the Global Priorities arm of the Church to major organizations—much larger than us—that focus on malnutrition. The Church recently created a new division that focuses on special projects for Church members. The top priority of this new division is child nutrition. Because Bountiful’ s focus is on members and their friends (pregnant women, lactating mothers and infants and young children, we fit better in this new program. At present, we provide nutritional supplements for about 20,000 individuals.
Bountiful has played an important role in the formation and progress of this new division. We have helped sensitize leaders to the issues and concepts underlying child nutrition, shared educational materials, developed software to assess child nutritional status, and invited leaders to our screenings. Two of our team serve on the newly-formed Church’s nutrition advisory committee.
In a recent meeting with key Church leaders developing the program, we shared our perspectives on ways we could provide technical assistance to local leaders as they implement programs across the globe.
In Central America, we have implemented a cooperative model whereby the Church pays for supplements and works with members to develop family health plans, while BCF provides technical support at screenings and distributes supplements.
We are exploring ways to create similar arrangements with the Church in the Philippines and West Africa with the ultimate goal of working with the Church worldwide to address children’s malnutrition.
The is a welcome opportunity for us to increase our impact exponentially. We appreciate the support we receive from volunteers—especially those in each country in which we work–and from our many generous donors.
We are so excited to have you with us, Sara! What a wonderful endeavor you will be working on.
Yeheyyy!! Sara Walker