Mary's Meals USA

Mary's Meals provides one good meal to some of the world's poorest children every school day. We are a global movement supported by people from many walks of life and different backgrounds. Our mission is to enable people to offer their money, goods, skills, time, or prayer, and through this involvement, provide the most effective help to those suffering the effects of extreme poverty in the world's poorest communities. We welcome all into the Mary's Meals family and we believe everyone has something important to contribute to the realization of our vision.

Our vision is that every child receives one daily meal in their place of education and that all thos

Goal One: Feed More Children: to feed more children in a place of education and help those suffering the effects of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest communities.

Goal Two: Grow the global movement: to grow the global movement and enable more people to offer their money, goods, skills, time, or prayer to advance the work of Mary’s Meals.

Goal Three: Strengthen the organization: to strengthen the organization and Mary’s Meals’ global network in the furtherance of the vision, mission and values.

Investments made in leadership development has been a variety of individualized trainings to further skills. Additionally, the Mary's Meals network has invested in the creation of a peer program that allows staff to interact with one another and learn hands-on bout leadership in a variety of roles.

The biggest external changes occurred due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While operationally we were able to shift to remote/hybrid schedules and adapted to how office operations were handled, the biggest adaptation made has been to service delivery across all of our program countries. as schools closed globally in response to restrictions, we knew our work couldn’t stop. Mary’s Meals was able to pivot quickly to provide a response to the effects of Covid-19 by starting a new community distribution model in which parents/guardians of children received take-home rations to cook at home, their new place of education. This was quickly implemented across our program countries. In collaboration with local communities, governments, local authorities and other agencies, we were able to adapt our program to distribute food to children, as they did their best to learn from home. In order to continue to reach the children in our programs and ease the burden on families facing heightened food insecurity, Mary’s Meals distributed food, which would normally be prepared by community volunteers and served to children at school, to parents or guardians who can cook the food at home. We provided take-home rations, as well as handwashing soap, to parents/guardians on behalf of their children/dependents. To distribute these essential items, parents and guardians were invited to the school where their children/dependents were enrolled, where they form a socially distanced queue. Staff, school feeding committees, and other community members worked to facilitate the distributions so that they happened quickly and as safely as possible while ensuring each individual received the correct amount of food. This approach was a great success in meeting the immediate nutritional needs of children and provided a social safety net for families struggling with the wider impacts of Covid-19.