How To Efficiently Run A Feeding Program

We are all better off if excess food ends up in soup kitchens, not landfills. Photo by Piotr Miazga on Unsplash

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”― Virginia Woolf

In September 2016, I launched my volunteer feeding program in Manila, Philippines called Feed A Kid Initiative. It is not a non-profit, as I am quite averse to the bureaucratic requirements that setting up a charitable organization requires. It is a simple Facebook page that promotes the use of fortified VitaMeal — a $22 bag of rice and lentil (maize if the feeding site is in Africa) that can feed up to 30 children.

One (1) bag of VitaMeal contains 30 meals. Each meal costs $0.70 and each child is guaranteed these essential nutrients:

• Vitamin A — essential for normal sight and immune functions
• Bone nutrients — enhance normal growth and skeletal development
• Zinc — reduces the duration and severity of childhood diarrhea
• Electrolyte — maintain normal fluid balance and muscle function

It was a damn-the-torpedoes approach, and for good reason. In that same month, there were reports that of all the items in the national budget our government could have slashed, it chose to cut the budget for the nationwide feeding program by ($16.9 million). This program helps address malnutrition…