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  • It Starts With a Meal

Arnold’s Letter Shares the Transformational Impact of His School’s Feeding Program in Kenya

  • Amanda Whitmyer

on  November 25, 2024

The Feed for Knowledge project led by Rise Against Hunger and Rural Family Hope seeks to break the poverty cycle in southwestern Kenya by improving learners’ academic performance and providing nutritious school meals for children like Arnold.

Arnold attends 8th grade at one of the seven schools served by the project, where he participates in the school feeding program. He receives daily meals that include locally sourced ingredients from farmers trained in sustainable agriculture, and from established school gardens, to further boost their nutritional value. He said, “Your program has afforded us a three-course meal plan, educational opportunities and a nurturing environment where we can grow.”

As one-third of Kenyans live below the poverty line, significantly impacting the children in the region, the project has made astounding strides in reducing malnutrition rates by 85%, which used to be higher than the national average. Arnold shared, “Since the program began, we have been able to see remarkable changes in our health, class work and co-curricular activities.”  This included the school’s handball team to compete at the national level! 

The feeding program has also increased school enrollment by 17%, encouraging parents to send their children to school to receive quality education and secure regular school meals. The project has also created new employment opportunities for community parents, helping them build a sustainable future to support themselves and their families — a community-led transformation. 

Arnold also shared a special thank you to YOU, our community of Hunger Champions, “Thank you for your generous donations of the food program…Your kind gesture is greatly appreciated, and it means a lot to have your support. He continued, “It is through acts of kindness and commitment from individuals like yourself that we can make a profound impact on the lives of us children and a community at large.” In the video below, you can hear Arnold reading his letter firsthand.

When you support Rise Against Hunger, you help ensure children like Arnold gain access to the education and nutrition they need to thrive, paving the way toward resilience empowerment and instilling hope in a brighter tomorrow. Will you partner with us to sustain transformational programs like Feed for Knowledge in Kenya and worldwide?

About the Author

Amanda Whitmyer served as the Digital Marketing Specialist at Rise Against Hunger.

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.