School Meals
Empowered To Dream & Reduced Family Expenses
Meet Chandy.
Chandy is a 13-year-old girl learning 6th grade in Cambodia. She says her dream is to become a teacher and her favourite thing to learn at school is the Khmer language.
Chandy recently changed schools, which for many girls her age can be a hard transition. This wasn’t the case for her, in fact, it was a meaningful improvement for her entire family all because of one new addition: school meals.
Before, Chandy's family lived in a school district that did not provide meals for students. Every morning, her mum needed to wake up early to cook and pack meals for Chandy to take to school.
"It wasn't easy because we had to cook for my daughter. I worried about my daughter if she did not have snacks or she would eat outside, as there is no hygiene."
— Chandy's Mum
Not every mum can afford to buy all the nutritious ingredients to make healthy meals. Let alone, have time to cook before school while balancing a job to ensure the needs of the entire family are met.
"Some parents don't cook for their children, because they are busy at the field. Some of my neighbour's children have dropped out of school."
— Chandy's Mum
Last year, World Vision, with the support of governments and partners, provided healthy and nutritious school meals for over 1.3 million children in 20 countries.
In many of these places, school meals are often the only food the children have access to.
Cambodia, Chandy’s home country, is one of the countries that World Vision has implemented a School Feeding Programme (SFP) to promote good nutrition and improve access to food and education.
World Vision helps provide daily meals to students, which in turn:
Since the move, Chandy's mum described how their everyday lives changed thanks to school meals:
"It's no longer a difficulty, because the school provides breakfast. And its hygiene and cleanliness mean I have no worries."
Chandy imagines what she would tell the Prime Minister, should they ever meet and discuss the importance of school meals:
“If I had met the Prime Minister, I would tell him that I’d like breakfast at my school, because a delicious breakfast can help reduce my parents' daily expenses. It makes me not hungry during learning, and I can study hard and get good grades."
— Chandy, 13, Cambodia
"My favourite meal is sour soup and fried rice. I like fried rice because it has vegetables, carrots, and beans."
— Chandy, 13
In 2023, The School Feeding Programme (SFP) supported school meal breakfasts to more than 80,000 students, and Chandy is one of them getting breakfast every morning.
"If I was Prime Minister, I would support two meals for students, because lunch makes students less hungry while studying, makes learning smooth, and reduces parent's expenses"
— Chandy, 13, Cambodia
School meals have the power to change the world.
They surely changed Chandy’s world.
Not only was the financial burden lifted from her parents, but she is now on her way towards completing her education and working towards her dream of becoming a teacher.
World Vision stands alongside children like Chandy in calling for Governments to expand the coverage of healthy and nutritious school meals.
Act now and call for every child to receive a healthy and nutritious school meal.
