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Dinapa Elementary School Provides 500 Meals Each Week in Sorsogon, Philippines

on  March 28, 2024

In the Philippines, nearly 45% of the population faces food insecurity and malnourishment. At Rise Against Hunger, we work to address this critical issue of hunger through work with our in-country impact partners, Convoy of Hope and International Care Ministries, and global network member Rise Against Hunger Philippines. Together, we provide many programs that serve more than 1.73 million people each year, including the school feeding program at the Dinapa Elementary School. Located in Sorsogon, Philippines, Dinapa Elementary School provides nutritious meals for more than 500 children each week, serving first through sixth-grade students. The meals prepared through the school feeding program are distributed to students by Rise Against Hunger’s impact partner, Convoy of Hope. As 29% of children in the Philippines are affected by stunted growth, by adding local ingredients to boost the nutritional value of the meals further, the student’s health and development have continued to improve.  For parents like Ruby, a volunteer cook at the school and parent, this school feeding program provides hope for her children’s future who enjoy the nourishing meals, “My dream for my children is that even just one of them reach college level.”

Agnes Llandelar, Dinapa Elementary School Principal

Dinapa Elementary School Principal Agnes Llandelar says, “The feeding program is really a big help to the school children. We have a school garden [and] the produce from the garden, the different kinds of vegetables, are added to the food the parents cook.” She further explains how improving access to a diverse diet has significantly impacted the students’ health and well-being and their ability to focus more on schoolwork. Agnes says, “There is an increase in the number of school children that are now in normal BMI.” As a result, school meals incentivize attendance, encouraging parents to send their children to school and enabling kids to receive an education. This school feeding program provides hope for resilient and self-sufficient futures — one meal at a time — by supporting the nutrition, education, health and livelihoods of children and their families facing hunger.Watch the video below to learn more about the Dinapa Elementary School feeding program and hear from program participants like Ruby and Agnes to see firsthand the impact YOU continue to make possible. Brighter futures for students and their families start with a meal, and it starts with you. Join our movement and help end global hunger with a gift of $10 or more to ensure communities across the Philippines have the resources they need to thrive.

About the Author

Maggie is Rise Against Hunger's Director of Marketing and Communications and has been a team member since 2016. Maggie works to spread the word about the mission to end hunger and to engage people globally to take action.

More Posts by Maggie Luckadoo

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.