USAID. UN SCN. Food aid
Tom Marchione
Madam
The relatively early death of Tom Marchione(Reference Cannon1) has come as a shock for his friends and colleagues, in addition to his family. He is remembered as a passionate advocate for the poor, hungry and malnourished, bringing a rare range of skills and insights in anthropology, nutrition and statistical analysis to his work.
His research for his dissertation in social anthropology was done in Jamaica where he found that families growing their own food were less likely to have malnourished children than those growing bananas for export. Local food increased in price following local inflation but the price of bananas did not. Since then, we have seen that poor countries have been pressured into increased import dependency for food. He predicted the impact the current meteoric price rise in food would have, and published a substantial number of influential papers and contributions to books(Reference Marchione2, Reference Marchione3).
For many years Tom worked at the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Within the limitations of his job description, his achievements were impressive. He helped ensure the nutritional quality of food aid, and adequate food control, and also supported breast-feeding throughout his career.
I knew and admired Tom since 1981. Particularly the last ten years or so we worked together within the UN Standing Committee for Nutrition. His enthusiasm for the work of the SCN helped to generate the support it received from USAID.
