5 Times Education and School Meals Changed Lives Worldwide

on September 5, 2019

We agree with the United Nations: Promoting literacy is absolutely critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG #2, Zero Hunger by 2030.That’s why Rise Against Hunger distributes a large portion of its meals to school feeding programs that promote increased attendance and provide students with the nourishment needed for academic success.On International Literacy Day, celebrated each year on September 8, we’re highlighting five stories of success from classrooms around the globe!

Celicourt

Outside of Cap Haitien in Tremesse, Haiti, lives a boy named Celicourt. Celicourt has no running water or electricity in his house and walks two miles to his school every day. He receives six Rise Against Hunger meals per week at his school through a school feeding program sponsored by our partner, Hands for Haiti. In the future, Celicourt hopes to go to a university.

Angelica

Angelica, described by her teachers as a smart, committed and creative 13-year-old girl, lives in a small isolated town in southern Honduras. Angelica has attended the Jose Trinidad Reyes School since kindergarten and is part of a school-feeding program, sponsored by Rise Against Hunger’s partner Central American Relief Efforts (CARE). She dreams of supporting her community by becoming a teacher.

Samir

Samir*, age 14, was born in South Sudan, and after losing his family members, was forced to flee to Uganda during the height of the South Sudanese war. Following a recommendation from the refugee camp, the Samir was placed together at the Don Bosco Children and Life Mission (CALM), sponsored by Rise Against Hunger’s partner, Salesian Missions, where he receives nutritious meals. Samir dreams of being a doctor because he wants to help people like the people of CALM have helped him.

Mmapula

For Mmapula Letswalo, a South African leader in education, teaching is the easy part. While working to bridge the gap between poverty in her community and uplifting the children in the crèche center where she works, support from Rise Against Hunger encourages her to push forward through difficult times.

Saida

Saida’s community has limited access to social and economic opportunities, including free and quality education, contributing to an increase in poverty rates. Fortunately, Saida has the opportunity to pursue her education. At school, she receives nutritious Rise Against Hunger meals distributed by partner Salesian Missions. She shares, “I want to continue studying at the university level and obtain my degree in Business Administration.”Are you inspired to support students around the globe this International Literacy Day? Help kids today, and year-round, by making a donation now.

Strength, Stability And Hope

The gift that filled Nelly’s table.

“We were yielding very little, and the crops could not sustain us the whole year,” Nelly remembers. As a mother of seven and a farmer with two decades of experience, the stress of inconsistent yields was all-consuming. A poor harvest not only strained her family financially, but also limited their own meals to just two a day. Their story reflects that of many in their fishing and farming village near a lake in the Karonga district of northern Malawi. Here, heavy rainfall makes conventional farming methods nearly impossible. The entire village is, quite literally, saturated in food insecurity — a reality that leaves families struggling to survive season after season without a dependable source of nourishment.

In 2019, Nelly began participating in Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience, a sustainable agriculture project implemented by Rise Against Hunger in partnership with the Foundation for Community Support Services (FOCUS). The project works with 3,100 smallholder farmers in Malawi’s Karonga and Mzimba districts to strengthen food and nutrition security by improving production methods, nutrition practices and household income.

Just one year later, Nelly was ready to expand the variety of crops on her farm. What land once only produced maize began to flourish with sesame, cowpeas, rice and groundnuts during the rainy season (summer), as well as maize and vegetables during the dry season (winter). Through climate-smart agriculture training, she learned new techniques like manure making, pit planting and mulching, crop rotation and intercropping. Equipped with these tools, Nelly’s farm began to thrive.

After the 2023–2024 growing season, she sold enough produce to purchase an ox cart. Her harvests in 2024-2025 season yielded over 500 pounds of crops, including 22 bags of groundnuts, seven bags of maize, 12 tins of sesame and three bags of rice. With this surplus, she was able to invest in a motorbike, which she now uses to transport African doughnuts (mandasi) that she cooks and sells — creating yet another source of income for her family.

The transformation reaches far beyond her finances. Nelly now has the stability to provide for her husband and children. “I am able to eat different food types, pay school fees for my children and fulfill the visions that I have made with my family,” she beams. “I am now sleeping peacefully without any fears of food or paying school fees for the children.”

Her leadership has also grown. Today, Nelly serves as a leader in the Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience project, teaching other farmers in her district to adopt climate-resilient, labor-saving practices. By sharing her knowledge, she is multiplying her impact — empowering her neighbors to experience the same transformation she has achieved.

Across Nelly’s community, food and economic security are on the rise. Lombani, a government extension officer for the region, explains, “I can see the community is being transformed in the sense that in the area, there is food, income and nutrition security. Development is also happening at the household level.”

Nelly reflects on what it means to invest in holistic programs that address the root causes of hunger: “We are now healthy people. Children are going to school after eating their breakfast, having high yields and different types of crops due to conservation agriculture practices. With the support from the project, we have food, and we can access other food items from the market after selling our produce.”

This is the gift that fills: a future full of stability, strength and hope. It fills tables with food, families with security and communities with the resources to thrive. It’s an investment in futures rooted in resilience and hope.