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Mira Excels in School with Daily Nutritious Meals

on  July 12, 2023

In Vietnam’s Minh Long district, Mira, age 5, lives with her mother. Those in her community live in rural and mountainous areas and rely heavily on agriculture and forestation for their livelihood. With many narrow and uneven valleys divided by steep hills and mountains, traveling during the rainy season is challenging, impacting local agriculture growth and access to nutritious food. When Mira’s mother fell ill and could no longer farm for an extended period, providing meals at home became difficult.To ensure Mira would receive nutritious daily meals, her mother enrolled her in school at Long Mai Kindergarten.  With support from Rise Against Hunger, in-country partner Children of Vietnam distributes meals at the school with the vitamins and minerals needed for proper growth and development. Mira explains how delicious the meals are and how they make her feel happy and active. She is no longer malnourished. Mira says, “I want to go to school, play with my friends, and have delicious meals. I will study very well to be a teacher in the future.”   Rot, the school’s cook, says before the meals, many parents worried about covering meal fees and how they would send their children to school, including Mira’s mother. She recalls the first time she met Mira, “I still remember when I saw her at school. She looked so small in front of other students. Her family situation and potential food insecurity within her household caused acute malnutrition.” Now Rot sees a child that’s transformed before her eyes, “As I look back on this little girl, I feel like she was reborn. She became more confident and sociable with others.”Mrs. Sang, Long Mai Kindergarten Principal, says many children once faced malnourishment, “But thanks to the meals from Rise Against Hunger with whole nutritional ingredients, the malnutrition rate has decreased significantly.” She further explains how Mira’s health has improved, and she’s attending school regularly. Mrs. Sang also mentioned Mira expresses her passion for learning and the bright future she has ahead of her with the support of her classmates, school and nourishing meals. Interested in growing the movement with Rise Against Hunger to support children like Mira and her family? Consider hosting a meal packaging event with your business, church or school to package nutritious meals distributed around the globe to help people facing hunger. 

About the Author

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.