Over the last year, we've learned to appreciate the simple things more than ever - like precious time spent around the dinner table with family. But what does teatime look like for families in Mexico, Somalia, or Lebanon?
You’re helping to make sure millions of children around the world get good food. Take a look at some of the meals keeping kids healthy and growing up strong.
Mexico
“Every day I eat tortilla because it is tasty.” says Rudi, age 9, from Mexico.
“You eat pork meat with tortilla. The typical food of the Mayan culture is pork meat. Tortillas are made from corn. You wash [the corn] and take it to the mill, you get a paste to make the tortilla and you eat it... When I take the tortilla, I make it into a shape like a spoon, if we are eating soup, I scoop it with the tortilla and eat. If we are eating some dry meat, I break the tortilla and take a little bit with it and eat.”
Thanks to supporters like you, Rudi’s family were able to build a garden, so they can grow their own fruit and vegetables.
“The life of Mayan children like me is healthy. We eat chaya [a shrub], white beans, black beans. We eat chilli. We eat tomatoes."
Lebanon
The ongoing economic crisis combined with the constant threat of a pandemic has made daily life challenging for so many communities in Lebanon.
We’re providing food parcels to vulnerable families living in collective shelters, like Lama’s* family, who fled to Lebanon from Syria.
Lama says “These food parcels came at a time of grave need…We cook one meal during the day, at 11am, and then we heat it up to eat at 6pm. Aside from the actual meal, we can't afford the cooking gas. Sometimes we cook rice or bulgur or vegetables, and when we don’t have any, we make tea and eat olives and thyme.”
Families in Lebanon are facing multiple challenges affecting their lives, livelihoods, and access to food and essentials.
That’s why it’s so important for the most vulnerable families to have access to food parcels - which provide almost all the food a family of five would need for one month - to help them get through this crisis.
Somalia
Deko takes care of her family’s goats and runs a lot to herd them. Sometimes she eats the fruits that grow in the pastures, but she loves to eat injera, a Somali pancake.
When most of their cattle died in a drought, the family struggled to get enough to eat. Support like yours helped them get enough rice, beans, flour, milk and oil to recover.
On a typical day, Deko will have injera for breakfast, rice for lunch and spaghetti for dinner. She also likes Somali tea, dates, and juice!
“What makes me happy is to watch my children sleep when they’re full,” says Deko’s mum, Anab.
Wales
During the first UK lockdown, there was an 89% rise in demand for emergency food parcels. Over the past year, many parents have lost their income, and the number of children going hungry is on the rise.
And we know that in the months to come, there’ll be more hungry tummies, more families going without meals and more stress and uncertainty.
That’s why we’ve provided 6,500 families in the UK with food vouchers to help ease financial pressures. And we’ll keep helping families get the essentials they need.
“He loves strawberries.” Amy says about her son Ethan, age three. “He won’t eat the green grapes but he’ll eat the red ones [laughs]. He thinks the red ones are plums!”
Together, we can feed more children
No country or community has been left untouched by the pandemic that’s turning families’ lives upside down. But supporters like you helped us treat 391,000 children for acute malnutrition in 2020.
With your support, we can do more. Together, we won’t let the pandemic reverse progress for children.
*Names changed to protect identities
