The international charity focused on ending child hunger, Mary’s Meals asserts that the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of Zero Hunger cannot be achieved by 2030, unless the “all hands-on deck” global response to COVID-19 is replicated in the fight against hunger.
The crisis call comes in the approach to World Food Day on October 16 and the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP26 in November.
The global charitable organization, (which has a local office in Bloomfield, NJ https://www.marysmealsusa.org/) aims to break the cycle of hunger and poverty, creating a generation of educated young people, who are equipped to both meet the challenges that they face and create positive futures for their communities.
CEO and founder, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow states: “There is an urgent need for a global and systematic response to global hunger. If we are to reach the laudable yet currently out of reach Zero Hunger targets set forth by the U.N. in 2015, we should adopt a similar model to the global response to COVID-19. Being too hungry to learn is one of the main issues affecting tens of millions of children across the world each day. The U.N.’s Zero Hunger and No Poverty goals are depressingly behind schedule. Poverty and hunger are intrinsically linked and we must recognize the real issues at play in order to break the cycle that is impacting the lives of millions of children.”
MacFarlane-Barrow continues, “Providing more than two million impoverished children a nutritious daily meal in an educational setting is an amazing moment in the Mary’s Meals story and we are incredibly thankful to the people who have so generously supported us on this journey. Yet, there is much more to be achieved in our continued efforts to feed children in their places of education across the world’s poorest communities.”
Founded in 2002, Mary’s Meals has developed an innovative and effective school feeding model which helps ensure more than 2 million chronically hungry children each day are receiving a nutritious meal in their place of education. Mary’s Meals serves children in 19 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
The organization has developed a sustainable and empowering charitable model by:
- Providing meals in school settings. This encourages children to gain a basic education that enables them to break free of the cycle of chronic poverty.
- Developing a sustainable program managed by local people. This contributes to the local economy through the purchase or growing of food, builds economic capacity, provides local farmers a market and develops skills of local volunteers.
- Creating a grassroots global movement that involves as many local people as possible, including volunteers in the individual countries and recognizes that each person has a unique part to play in the mission.
MacFarlane-Barrow said, “We are focused upon making long term positive change. It’s no coincidence that the poorest people in the world are the ones who receive no or very little education. Being too hungry to learn is one of the main issues millions of children across the world face every day – the stark choice between eating or learning. Providing a young person with a good meal in their place of education provides them with the nourishment, energy and will-power to learn; it gives them the basic tools to transform not just their own lives, but the lives of their communities. If we can raise awareness and action to support and replicate this simple idea across the global community, we could have a shot at achieving those key aims of the U.N. for Zero Hunger and No Poverty.”
