Our Impact
The canteen is important because it provides a stable frequency rate at the schools, because the students can count on a warm meal. This gives them peace of mind.
Assessing our impact
Our five-year research project observed our school feeding program in two of our largest country programs: Malawi and Zambia.
We spoke to children, teachers, parents and volunteers in each country to find out more about the difference school meals are making. Our findings showed that the meals we serve every school day have the power to impact child hunger and children’s energy and wellbeing and to increase school enrollment and improve attendance.
Although our focus will always center around the children we serve, the impact of our work on communities is also significant, and the generosity and dedication of our volunteers and local communities is intrinsic to our approach to school feeding.
In 2022, we further strengthened our ability to monitor and learn from our programs in Malawi, Zambia, Kenya and Liberia by embedding a consistent evaluation approach with key child-specific indicators.
School feeding programs are widely recognized as a cost-effective way to tackle poverty by addressing the immediate needs of hungry children and contributing to the long-term development of their communities. We conduct research annually to show the ongoing impact of our work. View our latest findings here.
We're now feeding 2,429,182 children every school day.
But more than 67 million primary school-age children are out of school around the world. In order to survive, they have to work or beg. Even if they do make it into the classroom, hunger affects their ability to learn.