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Feeding Programs. Food is Love.
Since the COVID Crisis of 2020 and 2021, the need for food assistance has become an increasingly urgent issue in our school communities. "Child Food Insufficiency" is a term used to describe children who are barely managing on a snack and small meal a day if they are lucky. Nutrition is obviously essential to ensure a child is physically and mentally healthy and developing cognitively. It allows them to concentrate and learn, protects against serious illness and helps fight infection when they are sick. Being served a prepared meal and eating it in the company of others is also a nurturing experience providing emotional support as well as nutrition for the body.
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Most school children rely on receiving their main meal of the day at school. However, the schools struggle to pay for food, the cook and transportation and most families are unable to contribute even the few cents needed for the meal. The average cost across our programs to provide a nutritious lunch each school day averages only 25-40 US cents per school day per child, money that most of their parents do not have. Gary's Fund is proud to have provided food support to almost 900 children since we began doing so during COVID in 2021. Our program is expanding significantly in 2025.
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​In Kenya we now cover the cook's salary, fuel and transportation costs which have risen due to inflation and to the remote locations of two of our schools. We are covering these complete costs in Ghana as well. The chidren are fed on school days in all 3 countries where our schools are located. Most attend school approximately 10 months/year. The number of children we plan to support in this way could grow significantly in 2025 with the inclusion of a South African after school program described below.
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Please scroll down for more details about our school feeding programs. For more information on the individual school construction projects and communities please use the "PROJECTS" tab to select the appropriate link.
Ghana: Aboso Benso School - Kindergarten 1 and Kindergarten 2
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2024: In collaboration with our Ghanaian partner, we started a feeding program for the kindergarten students attending our school there. We made a $4,000 donation to cover the first 6 months of the program as it gets off the ground.
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At a cost of 40 cents/child/day, Gary's Fund is providing funding to feed 45 chidren for the school year. Our donation covers the following:
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The school cook's salary
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Transportation and fuel costs as fuel is prohibitively expensive, impacting the ability travel to purchase and deliver the food.
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Nutritious freshly cooked lunches for the kindergarteners using local ingredients.​​​​​
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In Gomoa Akroful, the people eat fresh food which must be refrigerated. Since no refrigeration is available some food must be purchased weekly. The meal served to the children at school is for many the main or only meal of the day. Here are some examples of their lunch menus:​​
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Rice with Palava Sauce, Salmon or Tuna fish Waakye and Shito stew with Eggs
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Banku with Okro stew and Tuna fish
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Beans with Fried Plantain
We have received a report that the children "enjoyed all the meals, eating with enthusiasm, especially waakye with eggs."
​Many families in this impoverished community cannot come up with the 40 cents to pay for their child's school lunch. In the past the school has fed them anyway but it will relieve a real burden on the families and the school to cover these extremely minimal costs (by our standards).
Kenya: Three Early Childhood Development Centres:
In Kenya, in collaboration with our partner, Africa Exchange, we provide funding for feeding programs at our three schools, Nkasioki, Sisit and Baragoi. The provisions provided at each school differ slightly depending on need. Cost per school also differs based on location and food items being purchased. Fuel costs are high and thus the feeding programs at our extremely remote schools are more expensive per child. The porridge provided at Sisit and Baragoi was designed by our partner and a local source to be nutritious and made from local grains. The food is cooked on site. This was deemed preferable to the standard UNICEF porridge. Nkasioki receives different food items which are staples for the indigenous community there.​​
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Nkasioki ECD:
2021: Gary's Fund provided $4,875 to fund feeding for the 140 kindergarten students at our schools in Sisit and Nkasioki.
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60 Nkasioki students received nutrional morning porridge and lunch daily, at a cost of $25/child/school year.
2023: Gary's Fund provided $9,000 in funds to provide food support to three pre-schools, supporting a total of 257 students. The cost was $35/child/school year. All Kenya students this year were in dire need of food assistance due to a severe ongoing drought.
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120 Nkasioki kindergarten students' received treated mosquito netting and food. The cost was $35/child/school year. Their food included maize, beans and oil, staples for this community. These items were purchased locally and greatly welcomed and appreciated. The delivery was received and distributed by the new head teacher and one of the school's original teachers and founders, Wilson.​
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2024: Gary's Fund provided daily lunch to a total of 280 Kenyan students, The total cost was $6795 for all 280 children.
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151 Nkasioki kindergarteners were fed at a cost of $45/child/school year.
Lochor Esechon ECD:
2023: Located in Turkana (in the far "northern frontier" of Kenya) Gary's Fund also agreed to provide food relief for this school for one year due to extreme need.
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78 Lochor Esechon kindergarten students received a daily hot meal of cooked porridge and treated mosquito netting at a cost of $35/child/school year.
Sisit ECD:​
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2021: Gary's Fund provided $4,875 in to support the combined 140 kindergarten students at our new school in Sisit and at Nkasioki.
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80 Sisit students received, at a cost of $50/child/school year:
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Daily meal lof nutritious porridge locally made porridge
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Snack
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Bi-annual anti-parasitic medication
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Treated mosquito netting
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School supplies
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One tree seedling/child from the community's tree nursery for each child to take home to plant.
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2023​: Gary's Fund provided $9,000 for food support to three pre-schools. All Kenyan students this year were in dire need of food assistance due to a severe ongoing drought.
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59 Sisit kindergarten students received a daily meal of hot cooked porridge at a cost of $35/child/school year.
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2024:
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​47 Sisit kindergarten students were fed a daily lunch and snack at at a cost of $70/year/child.
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Sisit's costs are higher this year because Gary's Fund is now paying transportation, fuel and delivery costs plus the stipend for the school cooks. Due to inflation this additional assistance was needed.
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Sisit is in a very remote location also increasing transportation costs.
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Baragoi ECD:
2024: Gary's Fund provided funding for the young children in this extremely remote school where food insufficiency is a particularly acute problem.
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72 Baragoi kindergarteners were provided with a daily hot lunch and snack at 70$/child/school year.
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Costs increased this year as Gary's Fund is now paying transportation, fuel and delivery costs plus the stipend for the school cooks. Due to inflation this additional assistance was needed.
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South Africa: 2 Pre-Schools and After School Program
Ncedulunthu and Masizahke Pre-Schools:
2020: Gary's Fund provided the funding for food packages for both schools during the COVID crisis when it became unlikely that the children were receiving food at home.
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Approximately 100 kindergarteners (about 60 at Ncedulunthu and 49 at Masizahke) were provided with food packages, at a cost per school of $39/month or a total of $930 for the year for both preschools.
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Food packages for the chidren were distributed by the school staff as schools were closed. This ensured that the children had something to eat. These packages included bulk staples (rice, soya and maize meal).
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Our partner in South Africa, Ikamva Labantu, launched a major relief program, including food for pre-schools, during the first year of the COVID crisis. The crisis had catastrophic impacts there. In a country where the unemployment rate prior to COVID was an unbelievable 30%, this number skyrocketed due to lockdown measures. There was a tremendous need for broad support on an enormous scale.​​​​
​​As the crisis unfolded, all preschools,including Ncedulunthu and Masizahke, were forced to close for 6 months and at the time it was unclear whether or not they would re-open in October. The children were not in school and thus it was uncertain that they were receiving food at home. The need to provide support and prevent hunger was acute.
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Gary's Fund was glad to be able to help.​​
Afternoon Angels After School Programme:
Gary's Fund has decided to join with our South African partner, Ikamva Labantu, in supporting an exceptional after-school program caring for children in the crime-ridden dangerous townships in the Western Cape. Called Afternoon Angels the program was conceived by a group of 53 deeply concerned Mamas living in these extremely treacherous communities where children as young as 6 years old were literally wandering the dangerous streets completely unsupervised after school and into the evening.
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It is hard for us to imagine the conditions under which these children live. "Child-headed" households are common and unemployment and poverty are rampant. These children are subjected to sexual abuse and violence plus pressure to participate in gang activity usually with nothing to eat. Many of the adults are unemployed or travel long distances to work everyday. Parents and other adults experience high rates of alcoholism and substance abuse. The children need help.​​​​
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The Mamas who formed Afternoon Angels, despite having very little themselves, decided to welcome these children into their homes. There they provide a safe, secure and nuturing environment. The children are supervised and can play, learn, socialize and participate in organized sports.
Possibly the most important service this programme provides is the serving of a free nutritious afternoon meal. A large percentage of these chidren will not receive this at home, thus relying on this program for their mail meal of the day.
Currently, there is only enough funding to provide a nutritous meal and snack 3 weeks out of the month. The cost per month is $15/child. Gary's Fund has proposed to provide the funding to pay for this crtically needed food for the remainder of each month during 2025 for all 1,400 children in the program for a total cost of only $7,000. We will keep you updated on this website.
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