Mary's Meals has launched a worldwide emergency campaign in the wake of nearly 21 million children across southern Africa facing malnutrition as poor harvests and some of the worst African droughts in living memory continue to plague countries well into the new year.

With the charity serving vital school meals to over 2.4 million children every day in 16 different countries around the world and 1.5 million children across four of the worst-affected countries, all hands are on deck to prevent a possible humanitarian catastrophe.

“ We have been working in Malawi for over 20 years, in Zambia for over 10 years and in Zimbabwe since 2018 so it did not take a United Nations' report for us to know that this was a dire situation,” said  Erin Pratley,  director of program development and operations with Mary's Meals International.

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“We already knew (of the need) and were already discussing what we could. In 2024, we expanded services into Mozambique and have been trying to raise awareness and respond as best we can in those regions.”

Mary’s Meals, a charity that provides meals in schools to children facing poverty and hunger around the world, has chapters in 20 countries. Among these chapters is Mary’s Meals Canada, which started as a one-volunteer venture in 2013. The chapter has since grown and gone on to raise enough to feed over 78,000 children through more than 15 million meals in 2024.

This looming hunger crisis stands to worsen with the recent cuts to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The agency spends $40 billion each year on humanitarian support and has recently placed thousands of employees on leave and recalled workers from missions around the globe following the Donald Trump administration’s freezing of funding to the agency over claims that USAID is wasting money.

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While  Mary's Meals’ operations aren’t directly impacted by this news as the charity does not receive any U.S. government aid, the communities it serves will be.

“ We are in a time right now in southern Africa of already acute need and any reductions in aid budgets are going to be devastating and likely to cost lives, including the lives of children,” Pratley said.

“Working in those communities we are going to see what those impacts are and still play our part in keeping our promise because we can — but the lives of those children and those communities are being affected greatly.”

With school feeding programs still in full swing in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe following the emergency campaign, Pratley and the Mary Meal’s team hope that, with the help of donors, the next announcement they make will bring better news.

“I would love for us to have a conversation a few months down the line where I can say where we think we are at in this campaign in terms of impact but at this point, we just want to raise awareness, get people talking about it, offer prayers and get people contributing if they can,” she said.

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“This crisis isn't going to be solved by Mary's Meals alone and so we are just trying to do our part within the crisis to make sure that children are being fed at school everyday.”

According to the charity, the average cost to feed a child for a whole school year is just $31.70. Visit Mary's Meals online for more information.