Mount Vernon school aids global hunger fight

The statistics are staggering. A 2025 report from the World Bank estimates that there are between 638 and 720 million people who are living in extreme poverty. They make less than three dollars per day.

Mary’s Meal’s is part of a powerful global movement that is trying to stamp out hunger, one village at a time. Inspired by humble beginnings in Scotland, Mary’s Meals has been driven by one simple, transformative idea: Every child deserves a daily meal in a place of education.

Mary’s Meals began as Scottish International Relief, founded in 1992 by brothers Magnus and Fergus MacFarlane‑Barrow. While working as fish farmers in Argyll, Scotland, they responded to the outbreak of war in Bosnia by organizing a local aid appeal. What started as a simple collection of blankets and food in their parents’ shed soon blossomed into a humanitarian mission. They repeatedly drove supplies to Medjugorje, Bosnia, and the shed became the organizational hub of SIR — symbolizing grassroots generosity and sustained commitment.

“Mary's Meals has been in existence for 24 years and it has been present in the United States for about 10 or 12 years,” said Bill Gavin, Regional Development Outreach Coordinator for New Jersey-based Mary’s Meals USA. Gavin is based in Westerville and works throughout Ohio, but he works in other states as well. “Mary’s Meals is very well-known in Europe. The United States is one of 19 other countries that have affiliates supporting the work that Mary's Meals is doing, throughout the world.”

Now, St. Vincent de Paul School in Mount Vernon has stepped up to help Mary’s Meals meet that challenge. They are joining other Catholic schools in the Columbus area to help feed children, so they can stand up to the worst generational poverty.

“We were looking for an organization that we could sponsor throughout the year and give back, and Mary’s Meals is endorsed by our own Bishop (Earl K.) Fernandes,” said St. Vincent de Paul Principal Cecelia Pitt. “He, sort of, invited our school to look into it. We had a representative from Mary’s Meals come to our school and talk about what they do. It’s a wonderful organization, that aligns with our values and our mission.”

When broken down, it costs just $25.20 to feed one child for a full school year — a figure made possible by low overhead and local volunteers to work the kitchens and prepare the food.

“So, we decided that, as a school, we were going to put our efforts toward trying to feed the same number of students in Africa as those that attend our school,” said Pitt. “Our school population is roughly 190, which we multiply by the cost of feeding a child for one year, and that has been our goal for the entire school year. The kids love it and we showed them some videos about what it looks like there and what a meal looks like.”

It’s a chance to take a serious look into how other children live in other parts of the world.

“We also talk about the effects of hunger on students when they come to school hungry,” said Pitt. “We talk about how they feel when they are hungry. In addition to helping to feed them, we are constantly keeping them in prayer, because we know about the struggles they’re going through. Our kids are reminded how they would feel if they only had one meal a day and how hard it would be to focus and concentrate in school, because you are hungry.”

Dress down days at St. Vincent are among the kids favorite ways to raise money.

“All of our dress down money proceeds (are used) as donations toward this charity for the year,” said Pitt. “We’re close to our goal, but not (there) yet. We hope to reach it by May and we have a lot of very generous donors. So, on the first Fridays of the month, the kids are allowed to dress down, if they bring in a donation.”

It is these efforts in schools, businesses, and other organizations around the world, that have helped Mary’s Meals to grow. In 2010, Mary’s Meals was serving 400,000 children daily. They reached one million children every school day by 2015. Today, Mary’s Meals feeds over 3 million children across more than 16 countries.

Mary’s Meals focuses on schools. Children often don't go to school because their schools don't have food. In impoverished countries, children must often work or beg all day, because there's no food at home and no food at school. If they don't have an education, they can't get out of poverty.

Being able to eat allows children to receive the education, which is the key they need to overcome the worst poverty in the world in places like Haiti, India, Syria, Lebanon, and 11 African countries.

“We feed entire schools,” said Gavin. “We don't just feed individual children. We are now feeding over 3 million children in 5,800 schools throughout the world. The other thing that makes us different is that we rely very heavily on volunteers at the local level. So, the people who cook the food are volunteers from those communities. We don't ship food in, like some other organizations do. We buy the food from those places, so it's food that they are familiar with. That way, we support the local economies. Not having to ship food in, helps to make sure that food is not stolen along the way or pilfered off at some middleman point. That's the way that we work that ensures that food gets there.

"We have supporters in all 50 states in the United States, including very strong support in Ohio. We have affiliates in almost every country in Europe, Canada, Australia, a new one starting in Brazil. Truly, it has become a worldwide food net. We're expected to reach 4 million children fed by the end of this year.”

In schools like St. Vincent, the impact of Mary’s Meals comes in an increased awareness of poverty and an appreciation of how well off Americans are in general.

“They come to school, everyday, and we feed our kids,” said Pitt. “If we think the child doesn’t have food, we have the resources to be able to help them. So, for them to be able to experience the idea that there are children who are starving, and there are kids and families, who don’t have food, opens their eyes and gives them the opportunity to just be more empathetic to other kids in other circumstances, besides their own. It made a lot of them sad. They're young. We have preschool through eighth grade. Many of them have not yet considered that there is this whole world outside of Mount Vernon. So, this is a chance to see what it is like for other people, to understand what a wonderful community we have, and we are all fortunate. Only, not everyone is afforded those luxuries in other places. It has been very good for them to reflect on that and find ways they can help.”

That help has come in the form of proceeds from a home lemonade stand, or a child’s piggy bank.

“Without prompting, they brought all of those proceeds in and wanted to donate their own money toward the cause,” said Pitt. “We’re creating this culture of really generous and heartfelt giving among our students.”

In so doing, the children of St. Vincent are learning the best kind of life lessons.

“It’s creating more awareness of the realities of different places in the world,” said Pitt. “We have so many resources at our fingertips for people, who need help. We refer people, all the time, to different organizations. We would like to think that there are a lot of resources, a lot of help, and a lot of people that could step in, but in places, where poverty is so prevalent, they don’t have those things, they don’t have the opportunity to help others, and they can’t help themselves. So, we are creating that awareness that we really are fortunate and, when we have extra, we share.”