Mary's Meals USA Inc

Mary's Meals International is a successful global movement that transforms the lives of chronically poor children with a simple meal. Working collaboratively with local communities, Mary's Meals International establishes school feeding programs that attract poor children into the classroom, where they receive an education that can free them from a lifetime of poverty. The Mary's Meals International program supports not only the children but also has a positive impact on their households and communities.Sourcing food locally whenever possible, Mary's Meals International operates in some of the world's poorest, and most remote or conflict-ridden communities. At the end of 2024, Mary's Meals programs were feeding 2,594,868 children every school day across 16 countries. The collaborative Mary's Meals school feeding program is particularly efficient and scalable, providing a model that is a sustainable means to end world hunger. Mary's Meals USA provides grants to Mary's Meals International to fund the school feeding programs. In 2024, Mary's Meals USA marked 15 years of supporting Mary's Meals International global feeding initiatives. While ensuring that 2,594,868 children received a nutritious meal every school day, Mary's Meals International also achieved several major milestones in its mission to combat child hunger and enable education.Building on the successful restart of the school feeding program in 2023 for 10,000 children in war-torn Tigray, Ethiopia, Mary's Meals worked with the in-country partner during 2024 to scale the school feeding program to feed 110,000 children in 200 schools throughout the Tigray region. Despite increases in violence and conflicts the adversely affected food security, Mary's Meals programs in Haiti, Syria and Lebanon collectively supported school feeding for more than 180,000 children every school day, serving as lifelines for children caught in the path of violence, armed gangs and chronic upheaval. In the fall, Mary's Meals marked 10 years of school feeding in Zambia. The program launched ten years ago in Chipata, in Zambia's Eastern Province, starting with 25 schools and feeding 18,000 children. By 2024, Mary's Meals International was providing meals to more than 400,000 children in 1,000 schools across 11 districts.In 2024, Mary's Meals International expanded its feeding program to Mozambique, responding to escalating food insecurity and the worsening effects of climate change on hunger in the region. Working with in-country partner, the Mozambique School Lunch Initiative (MSLI), Mary's Meals provides meals to more than 5,000 children in 30 primary schools across the Mabalane district of the Gaza province in southwest Mozambique. Mary's Meals International school feeding model continues to be an effective solution for addressing global hunger. Throughout 2023, Mary's Meals tracked child-focused indicators in the four program countries where the organization directly implements school feeding Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, and Zambia. Across these four countries, 3,100 children in receiving Mary's Meals in schools, hundreds of teachers and groups of parents were surveyed about the impacts of daily school meals on reducing hunger, as well as improving school attendance, participation, and ultimately progression through school.Key findings from the study demonstrate the positive impact of the Mary's Meals International school feeding program:- Only 1% of children reported missing school due to hunger after meals were introduced.- Following the introduction of meals, 84% of children said they never leave school early because of hunger.- Before meals were served, 36% of children felt they could concentrate well in class. This rose to 98% after receiving meals.- 99% of teachers reported that school meals help reduce student dropout rates.The positive impact of feeding children in a place of learning has also been recognized by the United Nations. In 2023, the United Nations added school meals as an official indicator under Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education, signaling global recognition of school meals as a key intervention to improve access to education and effective learning environments for children.Mary's Meals International works in countries that faced a variety of significant issues including conflict, the effects of climate change and increasing costs of food. Combined, these challenges negatively impact local communities and children in particular. The work of Mary's Meals International demonstrates the organization's commitment to providing services where they are needed most. Mary's Meals USA remains thankful for the support received from donors in the United States, which enables the Mary's Meals International programs that are transformative for the children, their families and their local communities.