As children in Liberia begin the 2025/2026 academic year, school feeding charity Mary’s Meals is marking a powerful milestone: now serving vital meals to more than 3 million children every school day globally—an extraordinary increase of around 800,000 children since the start of 2024.
For children living in areas affected by climate change, acute food insecurity or the aftermath of conflict, the promise of a meal served in a place of education can be the difference between attending school or staying home. There are currently 71 million primary school-age children who are out of school – a figure higher than the total number of children of the same age enrolled in primary education in Europe, USA, and Canada – but research shows that effective school feeding creates a powerful incentive to attend.
This milestone follows a major scale-up of Mary’s Meals’ school feeding programmes across nine countries, seeing hundreds of thousands of children added to the programme globally over an 18-month period, including in Liberia, Malawi, Haiti, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Sudan, and Ethiopia.
In Liberia, the Mary’s Meals School Feeding Programme is providing a social safety net for families concerned with meeting the nutritional needs of their children across five counties: Bong, Bomi, Grand Cape Mount, Gbarpolu, and Montserrado. Many of the schools are in remote, hard-to-reach locations—deep in the jungle and only accessible by dirt roads. Despite inevitable logistical challenges, the Mary’s Meals Liberia team is committed to reaching these children in remote communities and continues to successfully deliver a consistent and efficient programme to over 90,000 pre- and primary students in over 600 schools.
In Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region, the charity has expanded its reach by more than 700%, growing from around 30,000 children in early 2024 to more than 245,000 children today. This is giving life-changing nutritional support to children who have endured years of conflict, suffering, and disruption to their education.
In Malawi and Zambia, two of the charity’s longest running school feeding programmes have also grown significantly – reaching more than 400,000 additional children and bringing the total to more than 1,315,000 children in Malawi and over 605,000 in Zambia. This is at a time when communities in both countries are enduring the effects of drought, flooding, and other extreme weather events alongside economic challenges. Against a backdrop of political unrest and violence in Haiti, Mary’s Meals has been able to work with its delivery partners to increase the number of children who receive meals through its much-needed programmes to more than 196,000 children.
To mark this historic moment in the fight to end child hunger, Mary’s Meals is making a renewed call for global support for its school feeding programmes that target children living in high-need and hard-to-reach areas. And as more than a quarter of all children worldwide face severe food poverty in early childhood (27%) amounting to more than 181 million children under five, the need for consistent school feeding programmes has never been more acute. Mary’s Meals Founder and CEO, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, explains:
“This landmark is less a celebration than it is a call to action. We invite every person of good will to join the Mary’s Meals movement so that our vision – that every child in this world receives one daily meal in their place of education – might be realised. Whilst it is an amazing thing that this work has grown to reach 3 million children, the sad reality is that tens of millions of children remain hungry and out of school.”
“Today, in a world in which we produce more than enough food for us all, thousands of children will die of hunger-related causes. And yet it costs Mary’s Meals around 10p to serve one meal, and less than £20 to feed a child for a whole school year.”
The growth of Mary’s Meals is testament to the number of people who believe in its vision –that every child should receive a meal at school – and who share their time and resources to make this vision a reality.
Testimonies
Robert S. Vinton, Alumni of C.H. Dewey Central High School, and Fleet Monitoring Officer of Mary’s Meals Liberia: “Robert says: “It is only God who can determine what life would be like without Mary’s Meals. But I don’t think we were going to be okay without it. Given the condition of my family and [me] back then, it was not good. Without Mary’s Meals, it would have been very difficult – if not impossible – for us to get by.”
Louis Yahaya, Senior Chief Khanene in Nyambi Village in Malawi: “We did not think anyone could afford to come this far to a place like this where it is so remote and is in the bush. I thought a project like this can only be implemented in the towns”.
Edward Yanyan, father of two children attending the Weleta Public School in Kokoya, Bong County: “They usually never stayed at school until it was time to leave. They most times refused to return to class after recess because they always come home looking for food; even when they found food at home during recess hours, they never returned to school after eating because they felt too weak to walk back to school. They are performing well in their lessons when compared to previous school years. I used to find it challenging to teach them after school as they would be hungry.”
The charity’s low-cost approach means that it costs just $25.20 (USD) / €22 / £19.15 to feed a child with Mary’s Meals every day for a school year. This is only possible because of many dedicated volunteers in more than 40 countries across the globe – from those who dedicate themselves to fundraising and awareness raising to the many thousands of volunteers who rise at dawn to prepare nutritious meals for the children in their own communities. Mary’s Meals increases school enrolment and improves school attendance.
Local communities own and run Mary’s Meals in the countries where the programmes operate and, wherever possible, our meals are made with locally procured food, thereby supporting the local economy.
Mary’s Meals School Feeding Programme has been operating in Liberia since 2006, but our presence here goes back as far as 1992 when we began providing aid during the first civil war.
Please visit marysmeals.org to find out more or contact Menue Bainda, Communications & Sponsor a School Manager, Mary’s Meals Liberia on menue.bainda@marysmeals.org or +231775473755
