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You’re Invited to Join the ‘It Starts With a Meal’ Movement

on  March 3, 2021

Did you hear the news?! We launched a new initiative last week – and we want you to be a part of it! It Starts With a Meal, sponsored by Red Star Yeast, is all about taking action today to help end hunger. As Rise Against Hunger works to impact lives around the world, our impact starts with a meal. In the communities we serve worldwide, we provide nutritious meals through both our safety-net programs and long-term sustainable projects that can then lead to opportunity, self-sufficiency, education and empowerment.With this new initiative, we are continuing to support those affected by food insecurity and help create lasting impact for these communities, and you can help us do that! There are several ways you can get involved with It Starts With a Meal:Share your favorite meal/recipe on social media.Is there a meal that has a special power for you? Maybe it reminds you of a specific memory or person, or it simply makes you feel good every time. To further conversations and awareness about the global hunger crisis, beginning a dialogue about the importance of a meal for every person and the power a meal can have in a person’s life can be a great place to start! You can do so by sharing a photo of your favorite meal or recipe along with #ItStartsWithaMeal and tagging @riseagainsthunger.Some food and lifestyle bloggers have helped us kick things off by sharing their favorite meals! We recently shared @myvegetarianroots’ onion potato curry, and you can download the recipe card on the It Starts With a Meal website as well as see the other bloggers’ dishes. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be highlighting new recipe cards from their globally inspired recipes, so make sure to keep an eye on the website! You could even make these dishes to share on social media – and we then might highlight your post!Learn more about the global hunger crisis and how Rise Against Hunger is responding.At itstartswithameal.org, you can learn more about global hunger and how Rise Against Hunger is taking action through our Pathways to End Hunger. You can also stay informed by signing up for Rise Against Hunger’s monthly emails where we share our latest developments in our work to end hunger!Staying updated on what’s going on to address the critical issue is a simple but effective way for you to join the movement to end hunger. You can then share that information with your friends, family and colleagues to encourage more people to become Hunger Champions and join the fight to end hunger, a key step toward addressing the crisis.Donate to support Rise Against Hunger’s work to end hunger.Last but definitely not least, become part of the It Starts With a Meal movement by donating today. Your donation will enable us to serve families and communities facing hunger and support education, resilience, bright futures and more. With the number of people facing hunger continuing to increase due to COVID-19, your support is more important than ever.Don’t delay! Join the It Starts With a Meal movement today!

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.