Remarks of Lusungu Ngulube, Head of Programmes, Mary’s Meals Liberia
Good morning, everyone! It’s fantastic to see everyone here today for what promises to be a joyous occasion for international school feeding charity, Mary’s Meals. First and foremost, on behalf of the entire Mary’s Meals global movement, I want to express our heartfelt appreciation to the organizing committee. We are delighted to be part of this celebration to commemorate the 8th Africa Day of School Feeding here in Bomi County today – the same county where Mary’s Meals in Liberia served its first ever meals to children attending school.
More than 20 years ago, Mary’s Meals began by making a promise to vulnerable children that they would receive a vital meal in their place of education. This commitment both meets children’s immediate need for food, and helps to address another key driver of poverty – which is a lack of education – by encouraging them into the classroom where they can learn and grow.
Our 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. The meals we serve to children typically consist of rice and peas with oil and salt and are prepared by Mary’s Meals volunteers to more than 150,000 schoolchildren in over 600 schools across five counties: Bong, Bomi, Grand Cape Mount, Gbarpolu and Montserrado. In Bong County, we are the sole provider of school feeding.
We receive support from generous donors and stakeholders who share our vision, including the US Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID has been supporting our work for a number of years and its latest grant is helping us to further address the immediate needs of hungry children, contribute to the long-term development of communities and highlight the issue of food insecurity in Liberia.
We work hard on how to source our food, aiming to use ingredients that are produced locally and available all year round, when and where this is possible. However, our most important consideration must always be consistent, high-quality produce delivered at a scale that allows us to keep our promise to all the children we support. We try to support smallholder farmers through our procurement where this is possible and have a strong desire to support Liberia’s economic growth.
I would like to conclude by sharing with you all words from our founder and CEO, Magnus MacFarlaneBarrow, and why it is so important that we are all celebrating Africa Day of School Feeding here today:
“What’s important to us is the hungry child. When there are hungry children in front of us today, we’re going to feed them, and at the same time we’re going to work on the solution to getting them 8fed in the long term, creating a global movement of people who believe in this vision.”
I want to finally extend my thanks to the Government of Libera, through the Ministry of Education, as well as the amazing communities we partner with where our meals are served. Without your unwavering support and cooperation, none of this would be possible. We are all in this together. Thank you all.