Christmas Catalog : Provide Hot Meals

Sometimes, when I’m really hungry but I don’t feel like cooking, I’ll get into my car, drive ten blocks to Greenville Avenue, and shell out a few dollars for a hot (though usually very unhealthy) meal at a fast food restaurant. It’s a quick and easy hunger fix, and it normally doesn’t require much effort on my part.

Up until a few months ago, I never thought twice about this little routine.

Then I started working for Arise Africa.

The children we work with in Zambia do not have this option. Even if there were fast food restaurants for them to frequent for lunch or for dinner, it is highly unlikely that these children would ever be able to do so and afford even the smallest of meals because most of them live on less than a single dollar per day.

Hunger is a powerful thing. Many of the children in the community schools we work in eat only one small meal at home each day. Some cannot concentrate and thus excel in school because of the constant, nagging pains they feel in their stomachs; others cannot even attend school in the first place because they must spend all of their time on the street corners begging for more scraps in order to survive.

This year, we are so thrilled to be partnering with several community schools to help provide hot meals for the students that attend class there. Beyond the health benefits that these meals provide, they are also one of the children’s very favorite provisions of Arise Africa. When I read through their letters every month, I always hear of their resounding thankfulness for these daily plates of food; I also hear about how they enjoy being generous with the gifts they have been given by regularly sharing their meals with other children in need.

The point of this blog post is not to ask you to toss your fast food habits to the curb. I know I won’t. I am, however, asking you to carefully consider taking one or two fast food meals out of your weekly or monthly diet and putting the money you saved towards feeding Zambian children instead. You donation of $5, $10, or $50 will be greatly multiplied and go further than you could ever imagine; because of it, many more students will be able to attend school regularly, learn more effectively, and remain in good health as they grow and mature in 2014.

To provide hot meals for children in need, please click here.