Why you should support Mary’s Meals this Giving Tuesday

Giving Tuesday (November 29th) is fast approaching and people around the world are primed to give what they can in aid of their favourite charitable organizations, doing their part to help better the lives of others.

Children across the world are facing unimaginable hardships. Never before in modern times has there been a food crisis so vast – malnutrition is driving illness and stunted growth among the very youngest in society on an enormous scale and forcing record numbers of children out of school to work or scavenge in an attempt to support their families.

Choosing to donate to Mary’s Meals this Giving Tuesday will bring about real change for children living in exceptionally difficult circumstances – unsure when they will next eat or feel full. Find out for yourself what the promise of daily sustenance can do for a hungry child and the ripple effects that simple meals have on children’s families and wider communities.

Children’s hunger reduces and energy levels increase when they eat Mary’s Meals

In the schools and centres where our meals are served, research shows that hunger is reduced among both girls and boys and this impact is sustained over time. In the communities where we work, children often attend school without eating breakfast. This can be because of a scarcity of food or a lack of money to buy food, or both.

It’s not uncommon for children to walk great distances to reach school – some journeys lasting over an hour each way – meaning they are arriving at school feeling hungry and with low energy. In Kenya, among pre-school learners who receive our meals, 64% of children said their tummies were empty when they arrived, but at the end of the day, having received their meal while at school, 86% said they felt full as they left to go home. 

Tanatswa and her four siblings live in a village in Zimbabwe that suffered significantly as a result of tropical storm Ana in January. They are all too familiar with the feeling of hunger. The 45-minute walk to and from school used to be a real struggle for the five children, but now Mary’s Meals is serving daily food at their school and helping to ease the hunger they feel.

Tanatswa says: “When I told my mother about the coming of the feeding program, she was so pleased that we were going to have a meal at school, she actually screamed! I have been really looking forward to this day [when feeding arrived at the school] ever since. Walking from home to school will be easier with the arrival of these meals at school. I hope some of our challenges will be alleviated.”

This significant change was also reinforced by volunteer cooks in both countries who serve the meals to learners. Over five years of our meals being served in schools, the percentage of volunteers in Malawi – many of whom are integral members of the local communities – who did not know of any children who don’t attend school rose dramatically, to just under half (48%). Prior to the introduction of Mary’s Meals to their schools, the percentage was much lower (23%).

The difference a daily meal makes in enabling young people to stay in school is very apparent to 17-year-old Michael. The hunger he and his classmates felt before the program began in their school was standing in the way of them making the most of their education.

“In the past, we would get very hungry, and we would opt to go home to search for something to eat. It is hard to concentrate on schoolwork when you are hungry. You can’t focus. Now, even when some of us have to leave home without eating, we know that we shall not go hungry once we get to school because of Mary’s Meals porridge.”

He has felt the benefit of receiving Mary’s Meals at school and knows the difference this has made to his life, so Michael has started encouraging his friends who dropped out of school to re-enrol. “I explain to them that there is no more hunger at school because they can have some porridge that will help them acquire some knowledge to better their lives.”

Standing in solidarity with the children in our feeding program this Giving Tuesday couldn’t be easier. Whether you choose to change the story for a child with meals for a whole school year by giving a one-off donation; set up a regular gift to give us the confidence to plan future expansions and reach more hungry children with life-changing meals; gift some of your spare time to fundraise for our work; or volunteer your skills, there are ways for everyone to get involved in our mission.