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April 21, 2017
St. Cecilia Academy students have no shortage of lunch options in the school cafeteria; they can choose to make a fresh salad or dish up something from the hot bar, loaded with meats, vegetables and starches. There’s no question where their next meal is coming from.
St. Cecilia Academy freshman Meg Goodrum, left, dishes up a meal of beans and rice during one of the last school lunch services of Lent. Every Friday during Lent, students were encouraged to eat a simple lunch and donate money to Mary’s Meals, an international hunger relief organization. The school raised more than $2,000 to help Mary’s Meals feed school children living in poverty. Photos by Theresa Laurence
That is not a luxury that millions of children who live in poverty around the world have. Some may go days without eating or else subsist on one meager meal a day.
For the past three years, and especially this recent Lenten season, St. Cecilia students have been taking steps to stand in solidarity with children around the world who go hungry every day, and raise money to support them. During Lent, students worked with the school cafeteria manager to serve a simple meal of rice and beans every Friday; for a donation of any amount, the students could support Mary’s Meals, an international non-profit organization dedicated to providing school lunches to children in developing countries, and get a taste of what those children eat to survive, day after day.
As part of St. Cecilia’s support for Mary’s Meals, every student, and some parents, watched the documentary film “Child 31,” which gives an intimate, and at times, heartbreaking, glimpse into the lives of children served by Mary’s Meals.
“Seeing that documentary makes it really real,” St. Cecilia senior Elise Driver said. “It’s not a generalization,” she said, explaining that often problems like “child poverty” and “hunger” can seem vague and too big to solve, but “Child 31” made those issues personal and alive for her. “I learned that you can donate $20 and feed a child for a year. So I gave $20, but I wanted to do more.”
This year, with help from St. Cecilia history teacher Deanna Kendall and a small group of committed seniors, including Kendall’s daughter Brianne Kendall, Driver led the charge to step up support for Mary’s Meals.
St. Cecilia Academy students raised more than $2,000 this Lent for Mary’s Meals, which provides meals to school children in developing countries.
“St. Cecilia taches compassion,” Brianne Kendall said. “You don’t just watch the video and go home, you do something about it. …We learn to put our faith into action.”
“Doing service is a substantial part of who we are” at St. Cecilia, said Deanna Kendall, whose Current Global Issues class every fall builds support for Mary’s Meals. After watching the “Child 31” video, Kendall wants her students to think about questions like: “How does lack of food affect my ability to study?” “How important is education, and how do we take it for granted?” and “What does it mean to do service in the Catholic Church?”
The St. Cecilia community was introduced to Mary’s Meals from some Dominican Sisters who serve in Scotland, where the organization is still based out of a small tin shed in a rural village.
“It’s a simple idea, and it can change the world,” Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, founder and chief executive officer of Mary’s Meals, explains in the “Child 31” film. “Every child gets at least one meal at school every day.”
By targeting schools, Mary’s Meals also helps boost school attendance in countries where some children and families don’t see the immediate value of education. “For some kids, food in school is what keeps them in school and off the street,” MacFarlane-Barrow said.
Mary’s Meals also tries to purchase the food products in the area where they are served to support the local farmers and economy. They also encourage mothers and family members to help prepare and serve the food. “We want to empower local people to take part in the process,” said MacFarlane-Barrow.
Driver, Kendall and other Mary’s Meals team leaders were thrilled to surpass their goal of raising more than $2,000 during Lent to support the organization. That comes after they raised about $1,000 during the Advent season. Those successes were the result of the student-leaders working hard to build awareness about the organization and creating interactive experiences for all students to get involved with a new and unique service project.
The success of the Lenten campaign taught Driver about “having courage to go after something you feel passionate about.” For her part, Kendall said she learned that “your enthusiasm about the change is what’s going to bring about the change.”
“We want to teach students about the importance of a long-term commitment, how to do service in a way that lives out their obligations and responsibilities as Christians,” Deanna Kendall said.
With the senior leaders of the Mary’s Meals project soon graduating, Kendall sees new underclassmen leaders ready to step in and take up the reins, and she is confident that Mary’s Meals will be woven into the fabric of St. Cecilia the way school-wide service projects for Room in the Inn, Relay for Life and Be Happy Haiti are.
Driver, who was recently awarded a full scholarship to Vanderbilt University for her academic achievement and service contributions, continues to dream big about how St. Cecilia can support Mary’s Meals. “I would love to raise enough money to build a school kitchen in another country,” she said. As support for the program continues to build at St. Cecilia, it might just happen.
For more information about Mary’s Meals, go to www.marysmeals.org.uk.