20 years of non-stop school meals in Liberia: Mary’s Meals’ generational impact beyond war, Ebola, and trauma
Press Release | 22 October 2026
Providing consistent daily meals for schoolchildren since 2006, the global charity is known in Liberia as “the one who never stopped” and never interrupted its school feeding delivery in 20 years
Anniversary festivities in Liberia unite teachers, partners, suppliers, families, children and thousands of former beneficiaries, kickstarting a global celebration across more than 20 countries
22 October 2026. Mary’s Meals’ school feeding programme in Liberia began in 2006, at a time when the country was still recovering from two prolonged and devastating civil wars, with tragic consequences: 250,000 people were killed and a further 1.3 million were displaced.1 The country’s utilities and roads were left in severe disrepair, while many businesses, schools and homes were destroyed. During the 14-year-long conflict, it is estimated that there were 20,000 children recruited as soldiers.2
Today, Mary’s Meals is the largest school feeding provider in Liberia, reaching more than 95,000 children with nutritious meals every school day through its community-led programme, operating in over 600 places of education across five out of 15 counties.
Over the last two decades, while trying to rebuild its economy and infrastructure, Liberia has had to face serious, country-wide health challenges including the outbreak of Ebola in 2014 and the global Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, even while schools were closed, Mary’s Meals continued to support children with daily meals – at times coordinating community distributions of food packs to allow parents to cook for children while they learned at home.
Paula Nawrocki, Country Director of Mary’s Meals Liberia, explains: “It is not just about helping them in terms of the nutrition and the health benefits by receiving the meals. Up to about 75% of household income for middle- and lower-income families is spent on food. By us providing that one meal at school, we're reducing that financial burden on the family.”
Sustainability: from 100% imported food to locally sourced school meals
While Liberia has made progress over the past 20 years, the effects of the war are still being felt, with 51 per cent of its estimated 4.5 million people living in poverty.3 In terms of global food insecurity, Liberia ranks 112th out of 123 countries, with a “serious” level of hunger.4 Education remains fragile, with one of the highest levels of children out of school globally, as well as a lack of qualified teachers.5 There is also a huge ongoing effort to improve agriculture, since Liberia has long been a ‘food-deficit’ country having to rely heavily on imported food.6
Mary’s Meals has a strong focus on supporting communities to become more sustainable, with around half of the food required for the programme now being sourced locally, and priority given to rural schools which are less likely to receive government support.
Sona Traore Sesay from the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Liberia highlights the importance of Mary’s Meals’ programmes in creating lasting change: “Students are able to come to school because they know they’ll have that one meal a day. As we know, when you nourish a child's body, you nourish not just their bodies, you nourish their minds and you invest in their future to be healthy individuals for tomorrow.”
Over the past 20 years, there have been many stories of children who, after receiving Mary’s Meals, have been able to support themselves and their families – including teachers, managers, a hospital lab technician, and a trainee doctor. Even the City Major of Tubmanburg [where Mary’s Meals Liberia has its headquarters] is a former Mary’s Meals driver!
Sister and brother Charlesetta and Charles Junior attend the same school their parents did, and the school feeding programme has supported all four of them. Charlesetta says: “Mary’s Meals helps education the best because it provides food for children at school and also whenever you eat at school, you will be having energy, and your mind will also be focused to pay attention to what the teacher is teaching. Mary’s Meals is better for education in Liberia.
“Whenever a child is hungry in class they will never focus on whatever the teacher is teaching. They will always be distracted, thinking about what their parents are doing at home, whether they are cooking or not.”
Mariama Brown set up Mother Tegeste Stewart Pentecostal Mission School during Liberia’s civil war, believing that even during conflict children deserved a safe place for learning. She has witnessed the firsthand the Mary’s Meals school feeding programme in action over the last 20 years. She says: “We had Ebola, Corona, all those things and Mary’s Meals were still committed to serving the Liberian school system. When Ebola came it wasn’t easy to go out there, but Mary’s Meals were there and carried the process.”
Since 2006, Mary’s Meals have served more than 260,000,000 life-changing school meals to children in Liberia. Every school day, non-stop, for twenty years.
The charity’s low-cost approach means that it costs just €22 / $25.20 / £19.15 to provide a child with Mary’s Meals for a school year. This is possible because of many passionate volunteers in more than 40 countries across the globe – from those who dedicate themselves to fundraising to the tens of thousands of volunteer cooks who rise at dawn to prepare nutritious meals for the children in their own communities.
Interviews:
Interviews with Paula Nawrocki, Country Director, Mary’s Meals Liberia, are available.
For Media Inquiries
Please contact Paloma García Ovejero, Head of Media, Mary’s Meals International
+44 7470896680
Photos and video resources – Copyright: Mary’s Meals
RISE documentary, by Mary’s Meals
https://youtu.be/2VlGGBepZbM?si=WnZcDMjxZqHfNzir
Notes to Editors
About Mary’s Meals
- Mary’s Meals is a simple idea that works. The charity provides hungry children with one daily meal in a place of education in areas where hunger and poverty often stand in the way of education.
- Mary’s Meals works with communities to serve vital school meals to more than 3 million children in 16 countries: Liberia, Benin, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
- Our mission is to enable people to offer their money, goods, skills or time, and through this involvement, provide the most effective help to those suffering the effects of extreme poverty around the world.
- Mary’s Meals increases school enrolment and improves school attendance.
- Local communities own and run Mary’s Meals in the countries where the programmes operate and, wherever possible, meals are made with locally procured food to support the local economy. In Liberia, Mary’s Meals works with communities to delivery school meals across five counties: Bong, Bomi, Grand Cape Mount, Gbarpolu, and Montserrado. 50% of the food used in the programme is sourced locally.
- Mary’s Meals served more than 400 million school meals in 2025, the same year it reached the milestone of feeding 3 million children, as the official Impact Report shows: Our Impact Story 2025.pdf
Please visit marysmeals.org to find out more.
