A day in the life of Grandma Alice

A donation to Mary’s Meals means that a hungry child knows they will eat a meal in school today. But what is the journey of your donation? Who are the people that carry out the little acts of love to ensure that more than 2.6 million children are fed every school day?  

Caring for others is instinctive for Grandma Alice, a mother of six in Zambia who lives with her husband and five grandchildren and yet still finds to carry out her little act of love – giving some of her precious time to volunteer for Mary’s Meals. 

As a voluntary member of the School Health and Nutrition Committee at Mnkhanya Primary School, Grandma Alice visits the school once a week to supervise those cooking Mary’s Meals. 

She wakes before sunrise to carry out her household tasks before setting off for the school where she is responsible for helping to ensure the smooth running of the school feeding programme.  She says: “My day starts as early as 05:00, and during the farming season, I wake up even earlier to go to the field with my husband. I clean my house, wash my plates and then leave for school at around 06:00. 

“As I walk to the school, I always carry a log of wood. Each volunteer brings a log of wood to use when we are preparing meals.”   

Alice is also on hand to take a turn in the school’s kitchen if any of the volunteers are unable to carry out their cooking duties. She says: “I always make myself available to cook for the learners. 

“When I get to the school, my fellow volunteers and I split the work so that the meals are ready on time. One will be fetching water, the other will be sweeping the kitchen and the last one will be cutting the logs into smaller pieces to fit the stove. Everything is ready between 07:30 and 08:00, and then we start preparing the porridge.” 

As the porridge starts to warm, Grandma Alice and her fellow volunteers have a quick catch up, though they make sure to keep it brief! 

She says: “We don’t chat for too long though because the porridge needs to be stirred again and again!”  

Then it’s back to work to serve the freshly cooked porridge to the children eagerly awaiting their daily serving of Mary’s Meals.  

Grandma Alice finishes her day at the school kitchen by cleaning the pots, washing her apron and sweeping the kitchen, making sure the space is pristine for the next day’s volunteers.  

She tells us: “I enjoy my volunteer work so much. The porridge helps the children stay active in class. Because of this porridge, my grandchildren no longer ask me for money to buy food for school, and I no longer worry that they won’t eat because I know they will eat at school. 

“I hope my grandchildren will gain an education and be able to take care of themselves – and me, their old grandmother!” 

Thanks to our low-cost approach, it costs Mary’s Meals just 10p a day to feed a child with our school meals. This made possible by volunteers like Grandma Alice – our school feeding programmes are owned and run by parents, teachers and local volunteer cooks in the communities where we work.  

As Grandma Alice’s story shows, a donation of any size goes a long way to help us reach hungry children with a good meal and a chance to gain an education that can be their ladder out of poverty. If you can, please donate today.