By Charles Coldman | Director
Our school lunch programme has now entered its third year, the first in which all 2,400 pupils across our network of partner schools will receive a daily meal throughout the year.
Changes for 2016
This year we have made an important change to how we deliver the programme by supplying food on a monthly rather than termly basis. This reduces the amount of food kept on-site at any one time and minimises the risk of food wastage caused by natural degrading of food (which, previously, was kept in store for up to 3 months before being used).
The future
We are very pleased to have already secured the funding that we require to deliver the programme through to the end of this year, largely thanks to some significant donations we have received from our foundation and corporate supporters in the UK. We have already begun raising funds for 2017 and have secured approximately half of the £45,000 ($64,000) that we have budgeted for delivery of the programme at its current level.
We are also in discussions with our partner schools about starting a breakfast club for the most disadvantaged pupils for whom the school lunch is very often the only meal they take every day. These children struggle in morning lessons having not eaten since lunch the day before.
The thoughts of a pupil
We recently spoke to Cecilia, a class 7 pupil and the student President at Kiteghe Primary School, and she had the following to say about how the programme has changed her life and that of her fellow pupils.
"When we didn’t have lunch at school many children were going home far away. I live quite a distance from school so going home and back made me tired. Other pupils couldn’t get back to school easily. There were less children here for lessons [in the afternoon].
Parents couldn’t afford to bring maize and beans as many parents here don’t have very good quality of work. It has really helped having lunch at school. The lunch now really helps the parents and the children. We take our lunch in one hour. If you finish early you can revise. It gives us more time to study and the lower classes can play.
I would feel bad if we didn’t have the lunch. We’d have to go back [to how it was before]. Since the lunch came we have performed very well. It helps the children. They all get to eat the same, so they can learn more. Some children were going home to no one and no food."
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
