The first of the month is always for food restocking, at Touch the Slum and our two Primary Schools.
For about $1550, we give approximately 830 meals every week day, plus 125 on weekends. That’s a LOT! (About 4500!)
Not only do we have to buy it, but since all the dried goods are purchased at once, we have to have it delivered, carried, stored, protected. Produce like matoke, greens, tomatoes, and onions are bought weekly and kept fresh. Our cooks start very early cooking up breakfasts, move right on to lunch, and then, at Touch the Slum, get cracking on dinner for the residential girls and night staff.
Whew! I makes me tired just thinking about it!
But we do this, 365 days a year, for one reason:
These kids often get NO meals a day at home. In the Namuwongo slum, in Rwakobo village, in the Mbarara slum, parents and aunties and caregivers struggle every day to keep a roof over their heads and even one set of clothing per person on little backs.
This type of poverty — the type with no relief, no outside help, no hope for anything different of better — leads to abuse, alcoholism, abandonment, and even worse.
So one or two meals a day, most days of the week is about more than nutrition or a handout. It’s about kids who can focus on learning, which can lead to a better, self-sustaining future. It’s about a home life with just a bit less stress and tension. It’s about an incentive that keeps kids coming to classes even when their families may want them to fetch water or work in a quarry or help herd cattle.
We can do this because of you and your support. It may seem like a small thing, making a donation… But it means the world to these kids. We can’t thank you enough!
Mwebele nnyo!
Jennings
PS Our food expenses come out of our general budget. Other than shortfalls caused by inflation, we don’t do DonorSee projects for food. If you’d like to become a monthly donor (or give a one-time gift) to help, just click below!
