Ingrained with Hope
With a deep grin and bright eyes, a young child waits in line to be served today’s meal of rice and beans. Her little belly rumbles with hunger, but she knows that today she’ll be fed.

Feeding Programs
Our more than 300 feeding programs nourish more than 55,000 children throughout 25 countries.

Thanks to our partners, we are able to purchase the rice and other food supplies needed to feed these kids and support the local farmers who are growing the products.

In some areas we are able to set up feeding centers for children to eat a nutritious meal and receive a Bible lesson. In most cases, this is the child’s only meal he will receive for the day.

In other areas, we set up food distribution sites that will supply food for an entire family. A family of 5 to 7 people receives a 2-week to 1-month supply of food.

The Meals
But the meals don’t always consist of only rice. In some places the children also receive a meat or other protein, vegetables, fruit or bread. It really depends on the area and the nutritional needs of the children. In Asia, we serve rice or noodles with a stew of vegetables or meat. If meat isn’t available, the children receive an egg for protein.

Rwanda
At the Kingdom Education Center in Kigali, Rwanda, more than 650 children are receiving an education—and a nutritious meal 5 days a week.

But that wasn’t always the case. When our team first came to this school in 2006, the children could barely stay awake at their desks. They had the opportunity to learn, but their hunger was too great to stay awake. Our number one priority was to give them a good meal so they would be ready to learn and play.

Today, you’ll see joyous children running about, giggling with their friends and participating in math, writing and Bible lessons, while women are busy preparing large metal vats of rice and beans. And at lunchtime, you can’t miss their huge grins as they receive their bright colored bowls filled with a healthy meal.

Malawi
The children receive a rice product that comes from an organization called Feed My Starving Children.  This rice mixture utilizes the latest in food technology to meet the needs of the most severely malnourished children around the world. Each meal combines the following nutrients with rice: vitamins A, B6, B12, C and D; zinc; essential fats; magnesium; iron; copper; niacin; calcium; biotin; and soy. All of these nutrients working together prevents various diseases and restores the health of the children.¹

Ethiopia
Working with International Crisis Aid  in Angacha, Ethiopia, we provide wheat grain for the whole family and plumpy nut (peanut butter, dry skim milk, loctoserum, maltodextrine, sugar, minerals and vitamins) for extremely malnourished children in Ethiopia. In order to be considered severely malnourished by United Nations and World Health standards, the measurement of the middle upper arm must be 12 centimeters or smaller in diameter. One child we met here measured only 9.6 centimeters.

Haiti
It is tragic, but true, that millions of children die every year due to poor nutrition. Their families cannot provide them with the basic necessities of survival. In Haiti, the people resort to eating mud cookies—nothing more than dried yellow dirt—just to avoid the cruelty of hunger pains. That's why we're partnering with Love A Child by shipping 270,000 donated meals every month to their distribution site. 

It’s an unbearable thing to witness. And it’s happening all around the world. In fact, more than 1 billion people—not only children—are currently malnourished. That’s nearly 1 in 7 people.

There’s Hope
But just when things look hopeless, there’s that tiny little grain of rice.

From the farmers who grow the rice, to partners of Joyce Meyer Ministries¸ to the volunteers preparing the meals, to the hungry bellies that take a sigh of relief with each bite, this simple and resilient grain is bringing hope to so many. While hunger is running rampant and stealing lives, a grain of hope is bringing life back to the people of the world in these countries and many more.

Rescue a Hungry Child
It only takes $6 a month to feed a child. You can help feed children today and many others who are enduring unthinkable situations when you give to our special missions’ campaign.

Please consider doing everything you can! Donate today.

1. “Our Food,”  accessed October 6, 2009.