Welcome to Photo Friday! Each Friday, we share photo collections of our favourite shots from our sponsor sites around the world.
Lunch time is an especially important part of the day for growing minds and bodies. Students at our sites need nutritious, filling meals to help them focus on their studies! Thanks to donations to our nutrition fund, our sites are able to support all sorts of school lunch programs.
This week, we’re sharing our top 5 “lunch time” photos from our sites! Getting meals ready takes a lot of work, and we’d love to take you through some of the steps that our staff, teachers, families, volunteers, and children take to prepare and enjoy meals together. It’s really a group effort!
#5: First, you have to cook the food!
Thanks to sponsorship, Liseth, from Cochabamba, Bolivia, was able to attend school. As she grew up, she frequented the after-school support program at her Chalice site, where she received help with her homework and a daily nutritious meal from the soup kitchen.
Liseth grew up watching staff at the kitchen prepare meals and knew in her heart that she wanted to cook for a living. She’s now studying to become a chef, and works at a local soup kitchen to help pay for her studies. She feeds over 100 daycare-aged children every day, and loves giving back to the community!
#4: Then, you have to wash up
Many school-aged children come to our CMAVIL site in Paraguay for nutritious meals and snacks. Sr Miguela makes sure every child has thoroughly washed their hands before they rush to the table to say grace!
#3: Now, you can serve up the meals!
These students from Mkono Wa Mara Primary School are patiently waiting their turn to receive their serving of school lunch! Chalice donors support their 10 acre school farm that helps run their school feeding program. “By getting food, absenteeism has reduced,” the head teacher explains. “Students have also improved in their studies – this year more than 95% of our students passed their exams.”
#2: Sit down, and enjoy!
These students from our Pochaiv site in Ukraine are enjoying a delicious school lunch on newly purchased dishes! These dishes were generously donated by kind supporters. Before, the school only had access to disposable plastic dishes, which weren’t good for serving hot food and weren’t meant to be reused so many times. This particular small school feeds over 100 children for lunch each day in two shifts, so the dishes can quickly be rewashed!
#1: Time to clean up after!
Charity is one of the ‘house parents’ at St Mary’s School for the Visually Impaired. She helps the children in the dormitories and assists with domestic work – like washing dishes after meals!
Follow Chalice on Facebook and Instagram for daily updates from our sponsor sites, impact stories, and more! Be sure to check back next week for another Photo Friday.