Mary's Meals: Feeding the World One Shirt at a Time with Gillian Giangrande

In this episode, my sister Gillian joins me to discuss her experience as an intern with Mary’s Meals. The mission of the organization (marysmeals.org)  is to provide a meal to a hungry child in their place of education with the hope that they not only meet the need of the hungry child, but they also encourage education. By following through on this, Mary’s Meals is breaking the cyclical experience of poverty that these nations experience. The influence has been able to spread to 19 different countries, even during the circumstances of the pandemic. 

Having this conversation with Gillian made me realize what makes Mary’s Meals unique, in that it addresses the cause of poverty, which is lack of education. As she alluded to, getting a child to go to school on an empty stomach is difficult because they’re not motivated to learn because they are thinking about how hungry they are. But, by starting simple with a meal, it is helping children in every other area of their life. 

In addition, we learn more about the origin of the name and how it found its humble beginning in Bosnia-Herzegovina. This humble start has compounded over the years to feeding 1,838,859 of the world's poorest children as of 2021. But, what impacted me the most throughout our talk is knowing that a small contribution can impact a child's entire year. Considering 93% of the money donated to this charity goes directly to the child, a $21 Mary’s Meals t-shirt feeds a child for their whole school year. 

Understanding that every contribution helps can help spark a change that can lead our world to a better place. Tune in to hear more about the vision of Mary’s Meals and how you can do your part!

Social Media:

marysmealsusa (instagram) 

heartlandforkids (tshirt instagram)

marysmeals.org