Together... we can! 2018-19 School Lunch Program Initiative.
Hello, friends of Jonathan's House in the Central African Republic.
Last year, we announced that we would begin a school lunch program for the students at our Christian School in grades 1 through 6. It was a tremendous success! To everyone who supported this program this last year, THANK YOU!
This was a response to widespread hunger and malnutrition among the student body. In 2017, enrollment increased from 302 students to 446. We know that parents signed their children up for school JUST BECAUSE THE CHILDREN WERE HUNGRY. Since the program began we have served approximately 70,000 meals.
Every day, each child in the school receives lunch for free, including a chewable multivitamin to help children get the nutrients that they need for growth and development. The lunch program also allows us to add three hours to the length of the school day. Today, more children are getting a nutritious meal with more school instructional hours, and all of the teachers are receiving more pay for more work. This program has a greater impact on more children than any other program at Jonathan’s House. For most of the children in the program, it’s the only nutritious meal that they received that day.
It’s also expensive, because of the numbers of children involved. For 450 children each day, with a meal cost (including 3 staff members, firewood, and food) of $0.42 per meal, the total cost is $189 per day, or $34,020 for the 2018-2019 school year. School starts on October 8, and it’s time to fund this program for the next year. Last year’s fundraiser was tremendously successful, and it truly changed lives for 446 children. Our school director noted that the children have better attendance, better grades, and they are much healthier than before the program started. If many of you respond the way you did last year, we can do this again. It’s amazing how much one good meal a day can change a child’s life.
I hope you will consider making a generous donation. It’s going to take a lot of people to make this program a reality again for our children, and I would REALLY appreciate your help. So will the children.
Tax deductible donations can be mailed with the form provided or made online at www.jonathanshouse.org. This is an opportunity to change lives in a desperate part of the world. If you have any questions, please contact me at carter@acts2collective.org or (641)751-7765. This is a large program for our small organization, so if you are reading this, please consider helping.
Thankful,
Carter Strand
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