We’re now feeding a total of 1,838,859 children!
We are celebrating the addition of 171,792 children to our global school feeding programme.
We’re now reaching more than 1.8 million children every school day through our global school feeding programme!
This wonderful news – that now 1,838,859 children are enjoying daily meals in school and the chance to learn and thrive – has been made possible by the generosity of supporters all over the world and the many little acts of love carried out on behalf of Mary’s Meals to take us closer to a day when all children have enough to eat and are able to go to school.
Not only have we kept our promise to all the children already receiving nutritious meals despite Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, we have also welcomed 171,792 new children since the beginning of 2020.
In the past year alone, we’ve expanded to reach more than 50,000 additional children in Zambia, 6,900 vulnerable children in Turkana (northern Kenya) and have doubled our numbers in Madagascar. We've also launched new partnership programmes in Niger, Zimbabwe and Malawi.
When Covid-19 hit in early 2020 and schools began to close around the world, we made huge efforts to adapt our school feeding model, to ensure that hungry children did not go without.
We started distributing food in communities for the children who rely on a daily meal. Some schools have since re-opened in the countries where we work and we are now safely reaching 1.8 million children every school day, whether at school or at home.
Daniel Adams, executive director of Mary’s Meals, said: "The expansion of our programmes, especially during a year of considerable difficulties for us all, is a real testament to the determination and dedication of our teams, volunteers, partners and supporters, who keep striving to provide hungry children with a daily meal in their place of education, whether that’s at school or at home.
"This year continues to bring its own challenges, including the ongoing uncertainty created by Covid-19 in the countries in which we work and the brutal conflict in Ethiopia, which has driven many people from their homes and has drastically increased hunger levels. There are so many children still waiting for Mary’s Meals around the world but we are confident in the innate goodness of all those who are part of this movement and whose efforts bring us closer to a day when all children have enough to eat and can go to school."