A South Florida charity is making nutritional news with a small meal-replacement gel-packet the organization is delivering to malnourished children in Guatemala.

The lightweight HopeGel nutrition packets are fortified with vital lifesaving protein, vitamins, minerals, good fats and calories. They can be eaten straight out of a small disposable pouch and do not need to be refrigerated, cooked or mixed with water.

The company that makes the HopeGel packets is working through the South Florida charity, Food For The Poor, to supply more than 34,000 of the meal replacements to two nutritional centers in Guatemala and plans to send packets to two more centers.

HopeGel was started in 2012 by Dr. Nathan Feldman and Daniel Schapiro, founders of EB Performance, a South Florida-based functional beverage company, in partnership with Dr. Jeffrey Miller, a urologist at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, and the Boca Raton Regional Hospital Foundation to address malnutrition in children.

The HopeGel team and Food For The Poor previously have teamed up to distribute more than 33,000 nutritional packets to malnourished children in Haiti.

In August, Miller and his wife, nurse Rachel Miller, and their daughter, Amanda, traveled with Food For The Poor to Guatemala to see how children have benefitted from the nutritional packets.

“After three months [of receiving the HopeGel packets], there was tremendous weight gain and an increase in mental sharpness. Their appetite returned,” Miller said. “You could see the overall happiness of the children.”

Guatemala suffers from one of the worst rates of chronic malnutrition in the world.

“It is heartbreaking to watch a mother who knows her children are suffering from malnutrition and has nothing to offer them,” said Food For The Poor Executive Director Angel Aloma. “Mothers will be happy to see their children get to a normal size and weight for their age. HopeGel is truly providing these mothers and their children with hope.”

Dozens of children every month are receiving the packets at two Guatemala centers – Sister Edna’s Nutritional Center and Sor Lucia Roge Nutritional Center.

Young patients must eat one to two packets a day until they return to a normal weight, which typically occurs between three and six months.

“It was very humbling walking through the little towns,” Miller said. “People would walk up to us, hug us and thank us. It’s very, very rewarding knowing that HopeGel is having such a positive impact.”

For more information visit the Food For The Poor Website.