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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.​​
​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 over 1,100 children since we began doing so during COVID in 2021.
Our program is expanding significantly in 2025.
Gary's Fund funds feeding programs at all 4 of our schools in Kenya and Ghana. All children are fed on school days (schools are in session for 10 months/year. When we refer to cost/year we are actually referring to cost/school year unless otherwise indicated. (For more details and photos scroll down below).
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. Some schools receive lunch and snack (ugi) and others only ugi as the community is now able to cover the rest of the food costs.
Ghana: We funded the construction of a permanent structure for our kindergartens and also for use of the primary school of which they are a part. We are also covering all costs associated with the kindergarten feeding program including transportation costs to the food market and the cook's salary.
South Africa: In 2025 we have begun funding the provision of the day's mail meal for 150 children in 3 afterschool "clubs." These clubs are part of a group of 28 Mamas who take in children to shelter and care for them after school. They have joined together in a program called the Afternoon Angels.
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.
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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
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. Fuel is prohibitively expensive. Travel by car is needed to purchase and deliver the food.
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Nutritious freshly cooked lunches for the kindergarteners using local ingredients.​​​​​​​
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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2025: We continue our support of the feeding program. For a cost of $650/month for 50 students (the enrollment has increased 20% with the implementation of this program). The children attend school 10 months/year. The cost/child/month is $13.00 or $2.88/week. Our partner has reported that school attendance has increased even on Fridays which are typically low attendance days. The cook has perfect attendance and is enthusiastically preparing the children's meals which they are thoroughly enjoying.
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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: Four Early Childhood Development Centres Have Been Served:
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.​​​
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.
2025: Our most recent donation for food support to benefit the Nkasioki students consists of snack (ugi ) only. The enrollment varies but for much of the past year was 188 kindergarten students! At last count that had dropped to 154. Ugi costs $25/year /student or $2.50/month as they are in school 10 months/year. The daily cost is measured in U.S. pennies.
Baragoi ECD:
2024: Gary's Fund provided funding for the young children in this extremely remote school where food insufficiency is a particularly acute problem.
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72 Baragoi kindergarteners were provided with a daily hot lunch and snack at 70$/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.
2025: Gary's Fund continues to provide some food support to Baragoi Kindergarten funding their much needed ugi (or snack) only. Snack only is being funded because this extremely enthusiastic and involved community is already finding ways to provide the children's meal on their own.
64 Baragoi kindergarten students are receiving snack only this year, or just $25/child/year or $2.50/child /month.
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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.​
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.
2025:
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40 Sisit kindergarten students are being fed a daily lunch and snack at a cost of $70/year/child or $7/month/child.
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South Africa: 2 Pre-Schools and an After School Program
Ncedulunthu and Masizahke Pre-Schools:
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. Gary's Fund was glad to help.
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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. The total spent on food for the school year per child was $8.53.
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Food packages for the children were distributed by the schoolstaff as schools were closed. This ensured that the children had something to eat. These packages included bulk staples of the region: Rice, soya and maize meal. ​​​​​​
Since 2020 these two schools have become increasingly self-sufficient no longer needing food support. The school Mamas and school families are able to cover the food costs...an enormous achievement!
Afternoon Angels After School Programme:
​The Mamas running the Afternoon Angels clubs, despite having very little themselves, decided to welcome into their homes the children of the dangerous Gugulethu Township in the Western Cape of South Africa. There they provide a safe, secure and nurturing environment for children after school hours. The children are supervised and can play, learn, socialize and participate in organized sports.
Serving a free nutritious afternoon meal is one of the most important elements of the program. A large percentage of these children depend on this program for their main (and sometimes only) meal of the day. The program consists of a coalition of 28 Mamas running "clubs" out of their homes. Caring for 1,400 children, mostly primary school-aged, with an average of 50 students/Mama, is a huge responsibility. These generous women cannot possibly feed so many children so Gary's Fund proposed supporting the children comprising 3 of these clubs. It has been difficult to secure food support for so such a large endeavor. We are very glad to help, especially as our two South African pre-school/kindergartens no longer need this type of help.
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150 children participating in three Afternoon Angels Clubs are being provided with a 3X/week nutritious meal/snack with $8,000 in funds provided by Gary's Fund. (The clubs meet 3 times per week for the entire school year).​​​​​