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The United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA), a trade organization for the dietary supplement industry, has declared an official charitable partnership with the Vitamin Angels Alliance (VAA), a nonprofit organization.1 The new partnership, announced on September 26, is the first such partnership for UNPA.
“We are pleased that the UNPA has selected us as its first official charitable organization and look forward to working collectively to increase awareness surrounding the life-changing effects supplements can have on individuals in developing countries as well as our own,” said Howard B. Schiffer, founder and president of Vitamin Angels.1
The Vitamin Angel Alliance was created in 1994 to combat malnutrition and childhood blindness around the world. The organization also promotes maternal health and provides health education, natural disaster support, and nutritional supplements for those medically underserved or at risk for serious health conditions and illnesses.
Dietary supplements are contributed to VAA by an association of “Vitamin Angels,” which includes manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, so the alliance can then donate the nutritional products to charitable healthcare facilities and programs in communities that have requested aid and attention for imperative health concerns.2
UNPA has committed to aiding VAA by trying to raise consciousness about the nonprofit’s worldwide efforts to provide vital nutritional supplements to persons in need, as well as promoting the alliance’s goal of curing childhood blindness (that results from vitamin A deficiency) by the year 2020. UNPA (formerly known as the Utah Natural Product Alliance), was founded in 1993 by natural products industry leader Loren D. Israelsen and played a significant role in passing the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA). The organization, comprised of manufacturers and processors of dietary supplements and ingredients plus third party analytical laboratories from across the United States, has initiated numerous educational events designed to increase awareness of key issues facing the natural products manufacturing and marketing industry, including quality control issues, adverse events to dietary supplements, and many others. More information about UNPA is available at: www.unpa.us.
Additional information on the Vitamin Angel Alliance and ways to make a donation can be found at its Web site at: www.vitaminangel.org, or by contacting Megan Starks at 805-564-8400.1
-Dana Donalson
References
1. Vitamin Angels named first official charitable partner by the United Natural Products Alliance [press release]. Santa Barbara, CA: September 26, 2006.
2. About Us page. Vitamin Angel Alliance Web site. Available at: http://www.vitaminangels.com/aboutus.html. Accessed September 28, 2006.
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