Our Mission – Ngaara School Meals

Our Mission

Ensuring every child is fed, every school day

Ngaara School Meals Charity's mission is to combat economic hardship and poverty by ensuring that every day-pupil attending Ngaara Primary School, Mbarara, Uganda, receives a nutritious and warm meal on every school day of the year.

We believe that no child should have to learn on an empty stomach, and that proper nutrition is fundamental to academic success and overall well-being.

Our Purpose

Bridging the nutrition gap

The purpose of Ngaara School Meals is simple yet impactful: to relieve economic hardship and poverty by providing free school meals to children at Ngaara Primary School.

Many families in the area struggle to provide adequate nutrition for their children due to financial constraints. The Ugandan government does not provide funding for school meal programmes, even at government schools.

Our programme bridges this gap, ensuring that every enrolled day-pupil has access to the essential nutrition they need to thrive academically and physically.

Our Activities

One focus. One school. Every day.

The sole focus of Ngaara School Meals is the provision of school meals. All our activities are dedicated to sourcing the funding for, the purchasing, and delivering of the ingredients necessary to provide these meals.

We are a financing vehicle. We do not run the school, employ staff, or manage kitchens. We raise funds, transfer them to Uganda, and the school delivers the programme through its own Board of Management and on-the-ground team.

This model keeps overheads at approximately 1% of income and ensures maximum impact from every donation.

Our Impact

More than a meal

Every day around the world, millions of children go to school on an empty stomach. Not only does this affect children's ability to concentrate and learn — it often means they do not attend school at all.

A daily school meal is a strong incentive for families to keep their children in school. When meals are served, school enrolment increases and attendance improves. Our school meal programme is much more than a plate of food — it directly improves the health and education of children.

In 2025, 97% of Ngaara's Primary 7 candidates achieved Division 1 or 2 in the national Primary Leaving Examination — the highest result in fifteen years of recorded data, and well above typical outcomes in comparable rural schools in Uganda.

View 2025 Impact Report

Why It Matters

A school that fell through the cracks

Ngaara Primary School is a rural school situated in a disadvantaged area. Rural schools like Ngaara tend to fall through the cracks with government and NGOs in Uganda. Despite widespread poverty, the Ugandan government does not contribute towards school meal programmes.

The food programme at Ngaara keeps children in school and increases enrolment. It serves as a social safety net and aims to improve children's nutrition by positively influencing their dietary choices.

Food is critical for learning and intellectual development. Continuing to provide it is a key investment in better futures for the children at Ngaara.

Going forward, we want to ensure a reliable and sustainable fund for feeding the children.

Support Our Mission

Help us keep the programme running

€31 feeds one child for a full school year. Every donation goes directly to ingredients.

Donate Now