The school feeding charity’s 2025 Impact Report highlights the impact of its locally led programmes, serving meals prepared in communities with more than 28,600 metric tonnes of locally procured ingredients

New data shows how this helped to reduce hunger, improve concentration, and keep children in class while supporting local economies

As conflict, rising food prices, and climate shocks continue to drive hunger in the countries where Mary’s Meals works, the global school feeding charity’s newly released Impact Report shows how nutritious daily meals served in places of learning are helping children to attend class, concentrate and progress(1).

During 2025, Mary’s Meals achieved the milestone of providing school meals for more than 3 million children in over 6,400 schools across 16 countries – and, in total, served more than 400 million meals through its community-led school feeding programmes.

The charity – which is among the largest non-governmental organisation providers of school meals globally – expanded its reach in eight countries (Ethiopia, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, South Sudan, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) and recorded its largest year of programme growth in 2025. Mary’s Meals delivered more than 28,600 metric tonnes of locally procured food for school meals globally, and 50.6% of all the meals provided were served to girls.

Mary’s Meals’ 2025 Impact Report includes findings from Tigray, Ethiopia, where communities are still recovering after a brutal two-year conflict that was followed by a drought. As part of the expansion research there, before school feeding began in the new schools surveyed, 72% of children said they felt hungry at school. After meals were introduced, this fell to 0%. The number of children reporting leaving school early at least once a month because of hunger also fell from 68% to 0%.

Across Mary’s Meals’ programmes in Malawi, Zambia, and Liberia, hunger levels nearly halved after the school meal was served. The proportion of children saying they could concentrate well in school rose from 40% before the meal to 94% afterwards, while teachers reporting that children were focused in class rose from 12% to 97%.

Erin Pratley, Chief Programmes Officer at Mary’s Meals International, said: “Our 2025 Impact Report adds to our evidence that school feeding is one of the most practical ways to support children facing hunger. A nutritious daily meal helps children attend, concentrate and take part in class. The impact also reaches beyond the meal itself, supporting learning, easing pressure on families whose resources are limited.”

The report also tells the story of 10-year-old Gugulethu from Zimbabwe, who lives with his grandparents, uncle and two sisters after his parents migrated to South Africa.

Before Mary’s Meals was introduced at his school, hunger often kept Gugulethu at home. When he did attend, he found it difficult to concentrate.

“I didn’t come to school every day because we didn’t have food in the morning,” he said. “I would only go to school three days a week.”

Now, with a daily meal served at school, Gugulethu says he attends every day and can focus in class.

“I come to school every day now because I know I will have something to eat,” he says. “I can listen to my teacher and concentrate because my tummy isn’t rumbling.”

His attendance and grades have improved, and he now ranks first in his class. He hopes to become a teacher.

The report also shows how school meals can support whole families. In Tigray, Ethiopia, Kidan, a widowed mother-of-three, says the meals her children receive at school help reduce pressure on her household at a time when food prices and income remain uncertain.

“By guaranteeing a meal every day for my children, the programme protects me from the fear of rising grain prices and the uncertainty of my modest income,” she says.

The report also highlights the wider benefits of school feeding to local communities. In Zambia, where Mary’s Meals has provided school meals in Eastern Province for just over a decade, the report notes that, since the programme began, there has been a 22% increase in children who progress from primary to secondary school in that region. In Zambia, Mary’s Meals works with COMACO, a supplier that engages cooperatives of smallholder farmers to source maize and soya ingredients for the vitamin-enriched porridge (CSB+) served in schools, linking school feeding with local food systems(2).

School feeding is widely recognised as a practical intervention that can support education, nutrition, social protection and wider human development(3) and Mary’s Meals’ school feeding programmes contribute to 10 out of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Mary’s Meals worked with communities to serve nutritious meals in thousands of places of learning on 91% of school days in 2025, offering consistent support to children experiencing poverty and hunger around the world.

— ENDS —

Notes to Editors:

Interviews: Erin Pratley, Chief Programmes Officer at Mary’s Meals International

Photos & B-roll – Copyright: Mary’s Meals: https://contentlibrary.marysmeals.org?c=9328&k=dde9ddf96c

FULL REPORT: https://www.marysmeals.org/sites/mmi/files/2026-07/Our Impact Story 2025.pdf

For Media Inquiries: Please contact Paloma García Ovejero, Head of Media – Mary´s Meals International: media@marysmeals.org

(1) Acute food insecurity and malnutrition remain alarmingly high as crises deepen, UN, EU and partners warn in new report [https://tinyurl.com/4arvj256].

(2) Local procurement and food systems, FAO, Inclusive procurement and value chains: [https://tinyurl.com/mubzdxcc]

(3) School Meals, Social Protection, and Human Development : Revisiting Trends, Evidence, and Practices in South Asia and Beyond: [https://tinyurl.com/fdjmjsmu]

2025 Impact Report key figures

• Mary’s Meals served more than 400,883,000 meals in 2025.

• The charity provided meals on 91% of school days.

• Mary’s Meals worked with communities to serve children in more than 6,400 schools across 16 countries.

• Over half (50.6%) of meals were served to girls.

• In 2025, Mary’s Meals recorded its largest year of programme growth, adding more than 640,000 children in over 1,300 schools.

• In Tigray, Ethiopia, children reporting hunger at school fell from 72% to 0% after school feeding began. Children reporting leaving school early at least once a month because of hunger also fell from 68% to 0%.

• Across Mary’s Meals’ programmes in Malawi, Zambia and Liberia, hunger levels nearly halved, decreasing from 88% to 48% after the school meal was served.

• In the same programmes, children reporting that they could concentrate well in school rose from 40% to 94% after the meal was served, while teachers reporting that children were focused in class rose from 12% to 97%.

• In Zambia’s Eastern Province, the report notes a 22% increase in children’s progression from primary to secondary school since the school feeding programme began. The report does not attribute this change solely to Mary’s Meals, but official data suggests strong links between these figures and the school feeding programme.

• In 2025, Mary’s Meals delivered more than 28,600 metric tonnes of locally procured food for school meals globally.

About Mary’s Meals

• Mary’s Meals works with local communities to serve vital school meals to more than 3 million children in 16 countries: Benin, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

• Mary’s Meals is a simple idea that works. The charity provides children with one daily meal in a place of education in areas where hunger and poverty often stand in the way of learning.

• Local communities own and run Mary’s Meals programmes and, wherever possible, meals are made with locally procured food, supporting local economies.

• The global average cost to provide a child with Mary’s Meals for a whole school year is €22 (EUR), $25.20 (USD), or £19.15 (GBP)

Please visit marysmeals.org to find out more.

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