Breaking down barriers: Mary’s Meals in India

Across seven states in India, more than 55,000 children eat Mary’s Meals every school day. In a country where 13% of children do not complete primary education, the promise of a daily school meal is making a huge difference to families in poor communities. 

Read on to find out more about how our work in the state of Jharkand, in northern India, is breaking down barriers to education and equality, and inspiring communities to come together to work towards a better future for their children.

Hunger and education in Jharkand

Our programme in India is delivered through a close partnership with BREAD Noida. Father Joson, BREAD Noida’s director, explains the context of the situation in which we are working together in the state of Jharkand. He says: “India faces a wide array of challenges. Climate change is felt very specifically in India. We have increasingly erratic rain. Because of this, there is a lack of rice production, and the price of rice goes up. The prices of commodities have [also] gone up because of the war in Ukraine.” 

He continues: “One of the main challenges the children face is a lack of incentive from their parents to send them to school. Parents do not realise the value of education. Children are often sent to work because getting some sort of income is the priority of the parents. They want the children to work in the fields… they feel that sending children to the classroom might be a waste of time and energy. Areas where children live and where we operate are far-flung, inaccessible regions. There are parents who are afraid to send their children [to school] if it is very far away, as there are extremists who are involved in armed conflict in Jharkhand.” 

Reaching the most vulnerable children 

The BREAD team reaches children living in extremely challenging environments such as informal settlements [slums] and small, rural villages where food and resources are scarce. Father Joson says it’s the promise of school meals that attracts the children to school where they can learn. With the children in school, BREAD does what it can to offer educational support. He explains: “We provide [the children] with skills development and job-oriented training and we monitor them while they go through this [training]. We believe that if a child goes through this tunnel of poverty and comes out the other side, the child can support their family and future generations can be saved.”

In the eyes of Father Joson, the effect Mary’s Meals has on the children who eat our meals is clear. He says: “[In the centres where our meals are served] the rate of malnutrition has diminished: children are healthier, there's greater attendance at schools and greater enrolment. Even parents who initially refused to send their children [to learn] are now happy. When children come to school, their parents feel relieved that at least one meal is taken care of.”

Breaking down barriers over a meal 

The Indian Caste system creates a hierarchy of status, adding inequality and social exclusion to an already complex register of issues in India – not least food insecurity.  But Father Joson tells us Mary’s Meals is helping to break down these barriers. “India has been a caste-based society for centuries,” he says. “Mary's Meals brings everyone together, irrespective of caste and creed – they are able to sit together and eat. Mary's Meals is a big leveller as everyone eats from the same kitchen. However, we feel that it is not only the act of eating together, but the mindset that we are all one that is embedded in the children's lives. Nobody wants children to grow up with the caste mentality. A person of low caste is always psychologically, economically and socially oppressed, whereas a person of high caste may learn to grow up to feel entitled, sometimes regardless of their financial background. Mary's Meals brings both together. A child who eats meals with everyone else for five years or six years will automatically forget about these divisions – eating is sharing and participating in the life of a community. We are one.”

Inspired to serve 

When Elsie first heard of Mary’s Meals, she worked for an electronics company. Not long after, she and Father Joson visited some of the schools in Jharkhand, and her experience left a profound impression on her. Today, Elsie is the Programme Manager for Mary’s Meals in India. 

“I look after the programme and I manage the Mary’s Meals data with all the centres,” Elsie explains. “We have 169 centres, and I control the monitoring system data that we get from the centres every day.” 

Joseph, a BREAD volunteer, says: “BREAD’s offices are actually very close to my house! I reached out to Father Joson because I’ve had a strong desire to get into social work for many years. Whenever the staff want to visit a centre where [the Mary’s Meals] school feeding [programme] is taking place, I give them a lift in my vehicle.

“Volunteering makes me happy in my heart and being able to help people in need has made me so happy. Everybody knows the amount of hunger in the world is too high, but we still live a life of our own. When I go and visit the children, we change our mind for definite and feel an urge to give something to them – financially or spending our time with them, whatever it is.” The impact on Joseph of volunteering his time with Mary’s Meals is plain to see.

Hope for a brighter future 

Programme Manager Elsie says she finds a wonderful simplicity in the Mary’s Meals model of pairing nutrition and education – and this gives her renewed hope for the future. She explains: “When I visited the Jharkhand area and when I met the people living there, I felt very bad. That was a big thing. I understood that Mary’s Meals is giving food to hungry children and that it makes the pupils come to school. I realised, with Mary's Meals, we give the children the chance of an education too. My hope for the future is to bring more children into the Mary's Meals family.” 

Find out more about our work in India.