Daily school meals

25¢ a plate — $10 buys 40 meals

How this one works

What's on the plate

Maize or rice with beans and greens, plus a protein three days a week — usually eggs, groundnuts or small dried fish. Menus are set by the school kitchen and a parent committee, not by anyone in Kansas City. About 700 calories and 20 grams of protein, which is roughly a third of what a nine-year-old needs in a day.

Who cooks it

Two or three cooks per school, hired from the surrounding village and paid a real wage rather than treated as volunteers. It's often the only paid job in the neighborhood that goes to women, which is a second effect we didn't design but won't pretend isn't there.

Why it moves attendance

In the schools we fund, starting a meal program raises average attendance 11 to 19 points within two terms. It's the single most reliable effect we've measured and the cheapest per point. Parents who were ambivalent about school become unambivalent when school includes lunch.

What we count

Plates served, logged daily by the kitchen and cross-checked against grain receipts and enrollment. Discrepancies over 5% trigger a visit. We publish the reconciled number, not the kitchen's number.