Where your money goes

$50 covers one child’s meals for the whole February–May season — about 45 meals. A full season across twelve partner schools and 2,101 children costs $81,939.

Most of our budget is for food, bought locally. Parents plan the menus, shop in their own markets and cook every meal themselves; more than 1,000 are trained each season, supported by fifteen Malagasy staff. Nobody in the United States draws a salary, and we travel to Madagascar at our own expense. In 2025, overhead — accounting, legal, banking and fundraising — came to 2.1% of total expenses.

How the money is watched

Each school is run by a komity, a committee of twelve elected by the village, which chooses a president, a finance manager and a health manager.

Every day the finance manager writes three figures on a chalkboard outside the kitchen: money in, money spent, money left. Anyone in the village can read it. The parents who did the shopping that morning know what things cost, so the board is checked by the people best placed to catch an error.

Two regional inspectors make unannounced visits through the season, and market prices are cross-checked against what each village reports.

We have never been audited — at our size it would cost more than some of our partner schools’ budgets. Instead, these are the controls a village canteen can actually run.

What it has produced

2026 was our first season of systematic measurement, so this is one season of data rather than a trend.

Children gained one to two pounds across the season. Seven of our twelve partner schools reached a 100% pass rate on the CEPE, the national primary leaving exam, and four more improved. Since 2019 we have served 289,674 meals.

See the full results →

Other ways to give

If you have a donor-advised fund, you can recommend a grant to Nourish Madagascar at any time. We are a registered 501(c)(3), EIN 92-1910752.

Checks can be sent to P.O. Box 561, Ojai, CA 93024.

Zelle can be sent to donations@nourishmada.org