School Meal Funding

Our charity began as a result of realising an urgent need for supporting the nutritional requirements of pupils at St Michael’s. The provision of meals to pupils continues to be a core focus for the charity and we now provide support across the three schools. Here is a snapshot of what we do:

St Michael’s

  • Fund 500 bowls of maize porridge a day

  • Provide education for staff on nutrition

  • Support for growing moringa

St Mulumbas

Fund 400 bowls of maize porridge a day

Bishop Willigers

Fund 100 bowls of maize porridge a day

As at April 2023 our charity has funded:

1,869,000 bowls of porridge at St Michaels

〰️

320,000 bowls of porridge at St Mulumbas

〰️

160,200 bowls of porridge at Bishop Willigers

〰️

1,869,000 bowls of porridge at St Michaels 〰️ 320,000 bowls of porridge at St Mulumbas 〰️ 160,200 bowls of porridge at Bishop Willigers 〰️

The drought and the continuing food shortages in East Africa have impacted all schools as the cost of basic food items have rocketed in price. The knock on effect from Covid-19 has left many families in extreme hardship. Our financial support is required more than ever to help ensure that the school children do get at least one decent meal a day. It costs £5 per child per term to provide a bowl of porridge each day.

How it began

The St Michael’s ‘School Lunch Programme’ started in 2008, with the aim to give all day girls a bowl of maize porridge. Within a year we were able to give all the 500 day girls a bowl of porridge each day at school.

This small meal makes a significant difference. Many of the girls would come to school without having breakfast - some having walked a long distance. They would have nothing to eat until they returned home in the late afternoon.

The benefits we have seen since starting the lunch programme include:

  • Better concentration in class

  • Improved attendance

  • Better exam results

  • Staff are able to carry out their teaching more effectively

In August 2011, an Oxford graduate volunteered at the school and undertook an in depth nutritional assessment of a sample group of 100 girls (a mix of boarders and day girls). She was satisfied that the St Michael’s School Lunch Programme supported the day girls in an appropriate way and was sustainable.

Expanding the programme and further education

It soon became clear that we also had to focus on the nutritional needs of the boarders and orphans at St Michael’s - not just the day girls. The school has a very small budget to feed the boarders, and had no money for feeding the orphans, until we started to help support the orphans. Sweet bananas are given to the whole school weekly and moringa powder is combined with their porridge daily.

Moringa is known as ‘The Miracle Tree’ in sub saharan Africa due to its nutritional properties. 

Nutritional values v.  Moringa

  • 4 x Vitamin A in carrots

  • 7 x Vitamin C in Oranges 

  • 4 x Calcium in Milk

  • 3 x Potassium in Banana 

  • 3 x Iron in Spinach

We continue  to work in partnership with St Michael’s to understand how we can best support all pupils and staff. We have assisted in providing education so that they understand the importance of a varied diet and to help fund the purchase of crops for the school garden and introduction of Moringa.

We have just partnered with Slow Food Uganda in 2023, who have funding from an Italian charity to create School Gardens throughout Africa.  The first workshop was on making green manure, and the trainers will return to instruct the schools on seed collection and storage and seed sharing. This is a 3 year training programme for pupils and the agriculture teacher.

Our financial support for school lunches has now been extended to both St Mulumbas and Bishop Willigers.

Your donations can help to fund:

  • A child for a term of porridge (£5 per child)

  • Fuel - firewood is needed twice a term to fuel the fuel efficient stoves- approximately £300 a year per school