How far can a nickel go?

I am writing to help raise awareness for a wonderful project that St. Stephen’s parish in Warwick is working on.

The project is focused on helping to raise awareness about just how far a nickel can go in this world by supporting an effort called Mary’s Meals, an organization offering a simple solution to world hunger.

Four hundred million children throughout the world suffer from hunger each day. The problem is so pervasive that in many Third World countries, children do not attend school because they are either out begging for food on the streets, are working to try to earn a meager amount of money for food or are too sick or distracted by their hunger to be productive in a school environment.

Quite simply, kids cannot learn if they are starving.

Mary’s Meals found that by building kitchens in the schools themselves and devising a plan for the local economy to provide the food to the schools that children can get a nutritionally balanced meal each day.

This is not just a stop-gap solution but rather this is a long-term plan to address the critical needs of children throughout the world, Mary’s Meals works with the local economy. The food is produced on local farms and in local businesses. The schools are built with the help of local labor and the kitchens are staffed with local volunteers.

Lydia vanDuynhoven, the coordinator of Religious Education, is overseeing the campaign to raise $11,500 to build a kitchen in one of the many schools hoping to bring Mary’s Meals to their community.

For five cents a day, a child can be fed, so we are teaching the children of the parish just how far a nickel can go.

Many children and adults in the parish community are actively collecting recyclable bottles for the five cent deposits, so that they can help.

Others are donating allowance money or money they can spare to help reach our goal.

The thing that makes Mary’s Meals so unique and so powerful is its effort to involve the local people they seek to help in the solution.

St. Stephen’s is inviting all residents of Warwick to consider helping our effort by giving us your recyclable bottles with five cent deposits. We can turn the bottles in for you, or would appreciate receiving any deposit amounts residents get back when they turn in their recyclables.

Every nickel brings us closer to our goal of helping to build a kitchen in a community that desperately needs one.

Donations of any amount are appreciated and will be put to good use.

For more information, please visit www.marysmealsusa.org or call Mrs. vanDuynhoven at 986-2231.

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

Sincerely,
Jane Kunzweiler
Warwick